MfrrNRLF 


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IvIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 


'^.:"Os.Artx.y^^ 


:'-^^0m, 


,>fcyU^uc<ty  e^wr*^^  >fi.^^^<*^a. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/beyondbeOOhubbrich 


BEYOND 


BY 


HENRY  SBWARD  HUBBARD 


^   ^  or  THE 


BOSTON 
ARENA   PUBLISHING   COMPANY 

Copley  Square 
1896 


H^ 


Copyrighted,  1896, 

BY 

HENRY  SEWARD  HUBBARD. 


All  Rights  Reserved. 


Arena  Press. 


BEYOND 


117649 


TO 

LOVERS   OF  THE   TRUTH, 

WHATEVER 

LAND   MAY   CLAIM    THEM   FOR   ITS   OWN, 

TO   THE 

EARNEST   MEN    AND    WOMEN 

OF   MY    TIME, 

THIS    BOOK     IS     RESPECTFULLY 

DEDICATED. 


PREFACE. 

A  word  of  explanation  in  reference 
to  my  title  may  be  appropriately  given 
here.  By  Beyond,  I  mean  what  is 
sometimes  called  the  unseen  world,  but 
which  might  better  be  called  the  im- 
material world,  since  that  which  dis- 
tinguishes it  from  the  world  proper  is 
not  merely  that  it  is  invisible,  but  that 
it  cannot  be  made  visible  to  mortal 
eyes. 

However,  I  have  not  assumed  to  treat 
of  all  that  the  word  might  be  made  to 
cover,  but  have  confined  myself  mostly 
to  that  territory,  with  the  entrance  to 
it,  which  may  be  said  to  adjoin  the 
earth,  and  which  therefore  is  more 
immediately  interesting  and  important 
to  be  acquainted  with,  and  have  ad- 
dressed myself  especially  to  those  who 


8  PREFACE. 

seem  to  be  constitutionally  unable  to 
perceive  the  reality  of  this  other  world, 
although  willing  and  anxious  to  be 
convinced. 

If  there  is  any  one  thing  more  than 
another  which  I  hope  to  convey,  it  is 
that 'the  truths  which  pertain  to  the 
superior  life  do  not  conflict  with  com- 
mon sense,  however  they  may  rise 
beyond  the  perfect  grasp  of  that  power 
of  the  mind. 

Heney  Seward  Hubbard. 


INTRODUCTION. 

To  MY  Brothers  and  Sisters, 
Greeting. 

I  bad  known  for  some  time  that  I 
had  a  book  to  write,  but  not  exactly 
how  I  was  going  to  set  about  it,  when 
there  fell  under  my  notice  the  following 
appeal,  whose  unique  and  toucliing 
eloquence,  I  venture  to  say,  is  without 
a  parallel  in  our  literature. 

"  There  have  always  been  those,  and 
now  they  are  more  numerous  than  ever, 
who  maintain  that  the  dead  do  return. 

"  Far  be  it  from  me  to  dogmatically 
negative  the  assertions  of  honest,  earnest 
men  engaged  in  the  study  of  a  subject 
so  awful,  so  reverent,  so  solemn,  where 
the  student  stands  with  a  foot  on  each 
side  of  the  boundary-line  between  two 
worlds. 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

"  We  know  a  little  of  the  hither,  can 
we  know  aught  of  the  thither  world? 
'How  pure  in  heart,  how  sound  in  head, 
wdth  what  affections  bold,'  should  be 
the  explorer  on  a  voyage  so  sublime  ! 
Never  from  'peak  of  Darien'  did  the 
flag  of  exploration  fly  over  the  opening 
up  of  a  realm  so  mighty. 

"  How  stale  and  trite  the  fleet  of  a 
Magellan  to  the  adventurous  soul  who 
would  circumnavigate  the  archipelagoes 
of  the  dead  ! 

"  How  commonplace  Pizarro  to  him 
who  would  launch  forth  on  that  black 
and  trackless  Pacific  across  the  expanse 
of  which  has  ever  lain  the  dread  and 
the  hope  of  our  race  ! 

"  They  know  little  who  are  robed  in 
university  gowns.  What  know  they 
who  are  robed  in  shrouds  ?  We  gather 
but  little  from  the  platform ;  what  can 
we  learn  from  the  grave  ?  The  wisdom 
of  the  press  is  foolishness.     Is  there  no 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

voice  from  the  sepulchre  ?  It  is  we, 
not  you,  who  are  in  darkness,  O  ye 
dead !  The  splendor  of  the  iris  of 
eternity  has  flashed  on  your  plane  of 
vision  ;  but  our  heavy  eyelids  droop  in 
the  shadow  of  the  nimbus  of  time. 

"  Can  you  tell  us  naught  ?  Can  we 
never  know  your  secret  till,  in  the  dust, 
we  lay  down  our  bones  with  yours  ? 

"  We  are  here  in  the  care,  the  poverty, 
the  sin,  and,  above  all,  in  the  darkness. 
Oh,  if  ye  can,  have  mercy  on  us ;  shed 
a  ray  from  your  shekinah-light  athwart 
the  darkness  of  our  desolation.  We 
are  trodden  down  by  our  brothers 
among  the  living.  Help  us,  our  fathers 
from  the  dead."  * 

How  profoundly  these  words  moved 
me  cannot  easily  be  told,  for  my  entire 
life,  up  to  this  point,  seems  to  have 
been  made  up  of  the  various  stages  of 

*  Editor  The  Agnostic  Journal^  London,  Eng- 
land. 


12  INTRODUCTION, 

a  preparation  enabling  me  to  respond  to 
just  such  an  appeal  as  this,  echoed,  as 
I  know  full  well  it  is,  from  the  hearts 
of  thousands  of  my  fellow-beings.  Yet 
one  who  should  enter  the  rose-embowered 
cottage  by  the  sea  where  I  sit  writing, 
would  never  dream  that  I  guard  treas- 
ures of  knowledge  gathered  in  the 
hidden  realm  that  lies  beyond  the 
sense. 

For  years  have  passed,  and  lonely  life 
has  changed  to  family  life,  and  there 
have  been  times  when  I  have  felt  almost 
at  home  again  within  the  confines  of  the 
purely  earthly  realm  of  thoughts  and 
things.  Not  quite,  liowever,  for  that 
would  be  impossible.  And  now,  shall 
I  branch  out  in  a  tale  of  strange  advent- 
ure  ?  Shall  I  seek  to  convey  to  my 
readers  what  led  to  those  experiences 
which  have  so  isolated  me  in  thought? 
Shall  I  describe  their  outward  aspect, 
the  channel    through  which  they  were 


INTRODUCTION,  13 

received,  as  for  instance,  a  dream,  a 
trance,  a  vision,  or  other  ways  less 
known  ? 

To  do  so  might  amuse  or  entertain, 
but  that  is  not  my  object.  Besides,  I 
understand  thoroughly  that  in  these 
modern  days  it  is  the  truth,  and  not  the 
truth-teller,  that  is  wanted.  If  a  man 
has  anything  to  say,  let  him  say  it,  and 
if  it  bear  the  stamp  of  truth,  if  it  will 
stand  the  test  of  analysis  the  most 
severe,  it  will  be  accepted.  If  not,  he 
may  show  a  ticket  of  his  travels  beyond 
the  moon,  but  that  will  not  avail  him. 

All  that  I  ask  of  my  readers  is  that 
they  will  permit  me  to  write  of  that 
realm  which  is  so  hidden  from  mortals 
that  many  of  them  deny  its  very  exist- 
ence, as  though  I  knew  all  about  it. 
Whether  I  do  or  not,  no  mere  state- 
ment, in  the  absence  of  other  evidence, 
could  in  the  least  decide. 

The  Author. 


BEYOND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

In  the  world  of  thought  to-day,  few 
things  are  more  significant  than  the 
extent  to  which  the  religious  dogmas  of 
the  past  are  being  questioned,  analyzed, 
and,  in  general,  made  to  give  account 
of  themselves. 

People  are  discovering  that  it  is  law- 
ful to  use  the  mind  as  a  crucible,  and  to 
submit  any  and  all  statements,  irrespec- 
tive of  their  age,  to  the  electric  current 
of  modern  fearlessness  of  thought,  be- 
fore accepting  them  as  truth. 

Scientific  formulas,  many  of  them, 
fare  little  better,  and  are  made  to  yield 
up   the   kernel    of    fact   they   contain, 


16  BEYOND, 

stripped  of  the  husk  of  theory  in  which 
it  has  long  been  buried. 

For  the  living  truth  is  demanded 
such  value  as  we  obtain  in  our  own  life- 
experiences,  if  possible ;  and  whenever 
this  can  be  obtained  without  paying  the 
price  it  costs  us  in  life,  of  pain,  or  loss, 
or  a  mortgaged  future,  then,  indeed,  the 
demand  becomes  imperious. 

And  this  has  become  especially  true 
of  late  years  in  regard  to  things  occult. 
Formerly  the  boundaries  of  the  earth- 
life  marked  the  limit  of  thought  and 
aspiration,  and  those  who  seemed  to 
have  the  widest  experience  within  those 
bounds  were  often  the  loudest  in  pro- 
claiming their  utter  failure  to  find  any 
lasting  satisfaction  in  all  that  life  could 
give.  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity, 
was  echoed  and  re-echoed  until  the 
gloomy  thought  spread  like  a  cloud 
over  the  sky,  chilling  all  noble  effort, 
and  blighting   the    aspirations   of   the 


BEYOND.  17 

young  and  hopeful.  But  a  brighter 
day  has  dawned.  These  boundaries, 
which  formerly  seemed  like  walls  im- 
penetrable, have  grown  thin  and  shad- 
owy, and  it  is  astonishing  to  note  liow 
people  everywhere  are  asking,  as  with 
open  mind,  Is  this  future  life  we  have 
heard  of  so  long,  an  actual  fact?  If 
so,  what  is  the  nature  of  it  ?  What  are 
its  relations  to  present  facts  ?  and  how 
may  I  obtain  a  common-sense  view  of 
it  ?  Just  what  are  its  relations  to  me, 
and  what  are  mine  to  a  future  life? 
Where  can  I  obtain  clear  light  on  the 
subject  ? 

This  condition  of  things  brings  it  to 
pass  that  a  peculiar  responsibility  rests 
upon  one,  like  the  writer,  to  whom  has 
been  given  extraordinary  facilities  for 
acquiring  the  knowledge  now  so  greatly 
in  demand.  To  relate  what  those  facili- 
ties were,  how  or  why  given,  and  what 
price   in    the   currency   of   the   hidden 


18  BEYOND, 

realm  was  paid  for  so  much  of  its  treas- 
ures as  was  brought  away,  might  inter- 
est the  curious,  as  I  have  suggested, 
but  it  would  not  materially  affect  the 
value  of  what  is  to  be  given.  That 
must  stand  or  fall  by  its  intrinsic  worth, 
not  by  the  circumstances  associated  with 
its  acquirement. 

It  may  be  imparted,  however,  that 
this  knowledge  was  obtained  at  a  period 
separated  from  the  present  by  an  inter- 
val of  fourteen  years,  that  so  momentous 
were  the  personal  experiences  associated 
therewith,  that  the  few  weeks  during 
which  they  occurred,  together  with 
those  immediately  preceding  and  follow- 
ing, seem  to  constitute,  as  it  were,  a 
separate  existence,  whose  length,  if  it 
were  to  be  measured  by  such  events  as 
leave  their  indelible  impress  on  the  soul, 
far  exceeds  the  entire  remainder  of  my 
life. 

That   I   have   kept    this   knowledge 


BEYOND.  19 

locked  up  so  long  has  been  due  to  vari- 
ous causes  beyond  my  control,  and  I  am 
more  than  glad  that  I  am  at  last  able  to 
put  on  record  some  fragments  of  it,  at 
least,  whose  value  I  do  not  underesti- 
mate, although  very  rarely  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  has  it  been  given  out 
in  this  way. 


20  BEYOND, 


CHAPTER  II. 

Perhaps  I  cannot  open  my  subject  in 
any  better  way  than  by  giving  a  few 
reasons  why  a  knowledge  of  The  Be- 
yond has  remained  a  sealed  book  for 
centuries. 

My  first  reason  will  not  be  a  very 
satisfactory  one,  because  I  cannot  now 
enter  into  it  as  fully  as  I  could  wish ; 
but  it  belongs  first,  and  cannot  be  omit- 
ted. A  knowledge  of  The  Beyond  has 
remained  hidden  from  men,  first,  be- 
cause those  intelligences  who  were  cap- 
able of  imparting  it  have  refrained  from 
doing  so.  Some  of  these  intelligences 
were  actuated  by  selfish  motives.  They 
could  more  easily  control  those  whom 
they  hoped  to  enslave,  by  keeping  them 
ignorant.     Others  have  remained  silent 


BEYOND,  21 

out  of  respect  for  an  edict  proceeding 
from  a  far  height  at  a  time  when  all 
men  were  believers  in  a  future  state,  and 
so  many  of  them  were  absorbed  in  spec- 
ulating upon  it,  and  holding  communi- 
cations with  the  departed,  that  the  earth 
was  neglected,  and  in  danger  of  going 
to  waste.  Hence  the  edict,  which  was 
promulgated  through  the  kings  who 
were  able  themselves  to  see  the  need  of 
it. 

Another  very  important  reason  why 
this  knowledge  has  remained  hidden,  is 
because  to  embody  it  in  a  language  ap- 
propriate to  it,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
avoid  obscurity,  is  exceedingly  difficult. 

Why  ?  Because  it  belongs  to  a  dif- 
ferent world,  a  world  which  has  no 
nearer  relation  to  this  one  than  thoughts 
have  to  things.  To  illustrate  what  I 
mean  by  this,  suppose  you  should  wake 
up  some  night  and  find  yourself  in 
silent  darkness  and  unable  to  move  a 


22  BEYOND. 

muscle.  Suppose  you  could  not  even 
feel  the  bed  under  you,  being  conscious 
only  of  being  supported  in  a  horizontal 
position.  So  long  as  these  avenues  of 
sense  remained  closed,  the  world  of  things 
would  not  exist  to  you,  and  you  could 
not  say,  of  your  own  knowledge,  that  it 
continued  to  exist  for  anyone  else. 

While  the  situation  would  be  a 
startling  one  without  doubt,  I  am  go- 
ing to  assume  that  you  would  have  a 
sufficient  degree  of  self-control  to  keep 
your  mental  balance.  This  would  be 
the  easier  as  you  discovered  that  your 
mental  vision  was  as  clear  as  ever,  and 
that  your  real  self,  which  is  back  of  all 
your  senses,  had  received  no  shock  or 
injury.  You  would  naturally  wish  to 
know  just  what  had  happened,  and  it 
would  be  cipt  to  disturb  you  somewhat 
to  find  that  your  reasoning  powers 
failed  to  respond  when  you  called  upon 
them  to  solve  the  problem,  as  naturally 


BEYOND.  23 

they  would,  since  the  brain,  with 
which  they  do  their  work,  would  share 
the  inaction  of  the  body.  Now,  if  the 
world  of  things  had  thus  vanished, 
what  could  remain  ?  In  the  first 
place,  memory.  You  would  be  able  to 
call  up  the  pictures  of  the  past,  and 
live  over  again  in  your  mind  any  scene 
there  depicted.  But  you  would  not  be 
confined  to  living  in  the  past.  Although 
unable  to  see  or  to  hear,  you  would  be 
able  to  assume  the  mental  attitude 
either  of  looking  or  listening,  and  as 
you  sought  to  penetrate  the  gloom  of 
your  surroundings,  you  would  be  con- 
scious of  lifting  eyelids  which  perhaps 
had  never  been  raised  before,  and  the 
mystic  light  of  another  world  would 
dawn  upon  you.  Shadowy  forms  of 
graceful  outline  would  be  seen,  at  first 
dimly,  then  with  greater  clearness. 
You  would  not  mistake  them  for  mor- 
tals, and,  having  no  acquaintance  with 


24  BEYOND. 

other-world  intelligences,  you  might 
take  them  for  moving  pictures,  desti- 
tute of  any  kind  of  life. 

Presently  you  would  become  aware 
that  connected  thoughts  were  passing 
through  your  mind,  without  conscious 
volition  on  your  part,  and  assuming 
the  attitude  of  a  listener  you  would 
discover  that  the  inner  world  of  sound 
was  opening  to  you.  The  subject 
treated  of  might  not  relate  to  you  per- 
sonally, but  3^ou  would  hail  with  de- 
light the  opportunity  to  prove  yourself 
in  communication  with  other  minds. 

Presently  some  sentiment  is  ex- 
pressed which  you  do  not  approve,  and 
you  put  forth  an  impulse  of  will-power 
in  protest.  Instantly  comes  a  thought- 
message  directly  to  you.  Who  has 
arrested  my  current  of  thought  ?  Tlie 
meaning  of  this  is  at  once  apparent. 
You  are  like  a  telegraph  operator  who 
has  been  listening  to  a  passing  message, 


containing  a  false  statement,  and  has 
stopped  it.  You  might  now  withdraw 
your  protest  and  allow  the  message  to 
pass  as  something  which  did  not  con- 
cern you,  or  you  might  assert  your  in- 
dividuality and  reply  to  the  sharp 
question  by  saying,  "  Because  I  allow 
nothing  to  pass  through  my  mind 
which  I  do  not  approve."  If  you 
adopted  the  first  course,  you  might  be  let 
off  with  a  curse,  and  told  to  mind  your 
own  business  hereafter;  but  if  you 
should  manifest  the  temerity  indicated 
by  the  second,  a  thundering  "  What  ?  " 
might  fall  upon  your  new  sense,  and 
you  would  discover  that  you  had  a 
fight  on  your  hands.  It  may  be  sup- 
posed that  you  would  mentally  assume 
an  upright  position,  which  in  that 
world  corresponds  to  the  act  of  rising 
here,  and  brace  yourself  for  the  con- 
test. But  it  is  not  necessary  to  carry 
the  illustration  any  farther  at  this  time. 


26  BEYOND. 

I  merely  wished  to  show  how  thoughts 
may  take  the  place  of  things  in  the 
mind's  arena  when,  for  any  reason, 
things  are  shut  out. 

A  third  reason  why  a  knowledge  of 
The  Beyond  is  not  more  generally  dis- 
seminated, is  that  false  ideas  in  regard 
to  death  are  so  predominant  that  it  has 
become  a  habit  with  the  great  majority 
to  dismiss  from  the  mind  all  thoughts 
having,  or  that  are  supposed  to  have, 
any  possible  connection  with  it,  and 
therefore  the  avenue  of  approach  to  the 
minds  of  such  is  kept  closed  by  them- 
selves. 

It  may  be  asked  why  the  solitary 
student  is  not  able  to  attain  to  a  satis- 
factory solution  of  the  great  problem, 
although  seeking  it  with  utmost  earn- 
estness. And  I  answer,  first,  because 
he  probably  seeks  for  it  in  the  same 
way  that  he  would  seek  for  earth-knowl- 
edge, which  is  an  error ;  and,  secondly, 


BEYOND.  27 

because  those  who  would  otherwise 
gladly  give  it  to  him  are  able  to  read  his 
motives,  and  finding  them  purely  self- 
ish, they  turn  away  and  leave  him, 
while  those  spirits  who  have  occult 
knowledge  to  sell^  demand  pay  in  a 
coin  which  the  student  is  seldom  will- 
ing to  give,  namely,  a  certain  degree  of 
control  over  him. 


28  BEYOND. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Mathematicians  have  frequently 
discussed  the  possibility  of  what  is 
called  a  fourth  dimension. 

They  have  shown  by  clear  reasoning 
that  if  we  could  suppose  a  person  to  be 
acquainted  only  with  objects  of  two 
dimensions,  that  is,  plane  surfaces,  the 
possibility  of  a  third  would  be  as  diffi- 
cult to  comprehend  as  now  are  the  spec- 
ulations on  a  possible  fourth.  For  in- 
stance, it  would  be  as  mysterious  an 
operation  to  transfer  anything  from  one 
point  to  another  without  moving  it 
along  the  surface  that  lay  between,  as 
is  now  the  manipulation  of  solid  objects, 
like  the  passage  of  matter  through  mat- 
ter, by  the  masters  of  occult  science. 

Tliis  fine  example  of  reasoning  from 


BEYOND.  29 

the  known  to  the  unknown  may  be 
compared  to  Leverrier's  researches  in 
one  respect,  and  that  the  most  impor- 
tant one,  namely,  that  the  looked-for 
fact  in  all  verity  awaits  discovery,  and 
that  the  scientist  who  shall  first  boldly 
declare  that  the  objective  world  about 
us,  which  seems  to  occupy  and  does 
occupy  all  of  space  that  we  can  reach 
by  ordinary  means  of  thought,  is  merely 
a  veil  which  hides  a  world  just  as  real, 
and  having  just  as  real  relations  to  us, 
as  the  first  is  supposed  to  monopolize, 
and  which,  in  its  essential  nature,  is 
independent  of  space,  and  its  concomi- 
tant, time, — whoever,  I  say,  shall  first 
boldly  declare  this,  will  fairly  win  a 
crown  of  laurel. 

When  I  say  that  this  world  has  real 
relations  to  us,  I  do  not  mean  us  as 
mere  aggregations  of  matter  in  a  highly 
organized  form ;  I  mean  us,  the  creat- 
ures of  hope  and  fear,  of  joy  and  de- 


30  BEYOND. 

pression,  gay  at  heart  or  careworn  with 
responsibility;  us  to  whom  friendship, 
love,  and  purity  are  realities  and  not 
mere  names,  and  who  cherish  the  firm 
belief  that  loyalty  to  our  ideals  and  de- 
votion to  truth  are  immortal  in  their 
nature,  and  that  it  may  be  possible  that 
we  ourselves  may  yet  become  as  impas- 
sive to  the  assaults  of  time. 

Shall  I  say  us,  also,  the  creatures  of 
doubt  and  despair,  whose  sky  is  hope- 
lessly clouded,  and  to  whom  anything 
resembling  happiness  has  become  only 
a  memory  ?  The  world  of  which  I 
speak  has  the  same  direct  relations  to 
us  all. 

The  idea  is  a  common  one  that  this 
invisible  world  is  to  be  sought,  if  at  all, 
among  the  imponderable  gases,  that  if 
it  have  objectivity,  as  it  is  supposed  it 
must  have,  the  nature  of  it  will  resem- 
ble these  forms  of  matter ;  and  that  by 
traveling  out  in  thought,  so  to  speak, 


BEYOND.  31 

along  this  line,  we  shall  presently  arrive 
at  a  sufBciently  accurate  concept  of 
what  these  invisible  realities  are  like. 

It  is  this  delusion,  that  the  unseen  is 
by  so  much  the  unreal,  instead  of  the 
contrary,  that  I  hope  to  do  something  to 
destroy. 

Let  me  give  an  example  of  occult 
power  of  a  scientific  sort,  as  exercised 
by  free  spirits. 

One  wishes  to  speak  to  a  friend. 
What  does  he  do  ?  He  simply  speaks 
the  name  of  that  friend  in  his  mind. 
Immediately,  and  without  further  effort 
on  his  part,  there  appears  before  his 
mental  vision  a  clear  outline  represent- 
ation of  the  form  of  that  friend,  ready 
to  answer  with  perfect  distinctness  any 
question  that  may  be  asked  of  him.  It 
is  telephone  communication  without 
apparatus,  and  with  the  appearance  of 
the  friend.  Were  the  two  in  close 
sympathy,  perhaps  engaged  in  the  same 


32  BEYOND. 

kind  of  spiritual  labor,  so  that  the  ques- 
tion would  be  of  a  kind  not  unexpected, 
the  rapidity  of  action  common  to  spirits 
would  make  it  possible  to  ask  the  ques- 
tion and  receive  the  answer  in  an  in- 
finitesimal fraction  of  a  second. 

I  have  called  this  occult  power  of  a 
scientific  sort.  By  this  I  mean  to  indi- 
cate, what  is  sometimes  forgotten,  that 
The  Beyond  has  its  science  as  well  as 
religion,  and  that  it  is  only  because  its 
science  has  been  a  sealed  book  so  long 
and  the  corruption  of  revealed  religion 
has  been  so  great,  that,  as  a  result,  the 
acceptance  of  occult  science  itself  as 
truth  is  called,  by  some,  religion^ 
although  removed  from  it  as  by  infinity. 
It  is  true,  however,  that  the  devotee  to 
occult  science  who  shall  persistently 
declare  its  genuineness  in  the  face  of 
opposition,  scorn,  or  even  persecution, 
is  on  the  road  to  illumination,  and  he 
may  himself  become  a  gateway  between 


BEYOND.  33 

physical  life  and  death,  through  which 
may  pass  and  repass  the  message,  the 
tone,  or  even  the  phantom  form  which 
testifies  of  a  world  beyond  the  grave. 
To  such  a  one,  his  belief  becomes  a  sure 
and  certain  knowledge  of  a  scientific 
fact,  as  verified  by  sympathetic  experi- 
ence times  without  number;  and  the 
time  is  not  far  distant  when  these  at- 
tainments will  receive  the  same  recogni- 
tion, as  belonging  to  the  domain  of 
reality,  as  those  of  physical  science  now 
do. 
3 


34  BEYOND. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Science,  as  such,  is  a  knowledge  of 
physical  facts.  Religion,  as  such,  is  an 
apprehension  of  spiritual  truths. 

The  work  of  the  scientist  is  to  sepa- 
rate facts  from  delusions,  and  then  to 
arrange  and  classify  his  knowledge. 
The  work  of  the  religionist  is  to 
separate  truth  from  error,  to  make  it 
effectual  in  practice,  and  give  it  to  the 
world. 

In  their  essence,  science  and  religion 
are  neither  enemies  nor  friends.  They 
are  not  necessarily  associates,  but  their 
respective  domains  are  included  in  the 
domain  of  thought,  and  thought  is  an 
attribute  of  the  ego.  The  ego  in  us, 
then,  is  in  touch  with  both  religion  and 
science ;  with  science,  primarily,  through 


BEYOND.  35 

this  material  body,  which,  surcharged 
with  vital  magnetism,  moves  at  its 
will;  and  with  religion  through  that 
inner  conscious  self  which  so  avoids 
expression  through  matter,  that  it  may 
remain  contentedly  under  lock  for  more 
than  half  a  lifetime,  and  which,  even 
when  released,  may  need  a  special  im- 
pulse to  induce  it  to  express  itself  in 
words. 

The  religious  nature  in  man  is,  in 
fact,  so  hidden  that  it  seems  at  times 
impossible  to  draw  it  out  in  any  mani- 
festation whatever,  which  fact  causes 
many  to  deny  its  existence  altogether ; 
and  there  is  to-day  a  widely  prevalent 
doctrine,  world-wide  I  might  say  among 
scholars,  that  all  the  facts  observable 
which  could  possibly  be  grouped  under 
the  head  of  religion  may  readily  be 
distributed  among  mere  physical  phe- 
nomena on  the  one  hand,  and  scientific 
or  intellectual  on  the  other. 


36  BEYOND. 

The  skepticism  in  regard  to  the  ver- 
bal authority  of  the  sacred  writings  is 
intimately  associated  with  the  same 
doctrine,  as  is  shown  by  the  way  the 
errors  and  the  truth  of  the  Bible  are 
made  to  seem  one,  and  the  whole  is 
rejected  as  error. 

It  is  taught,  in  effect,  that  all  which 
goes  by  the  name  of  religion  is  un- 
worthy the  serious  attention  of  the 
thoughtful,  that  it  had  its  origin  in  the 
barbarous  stage  of  our  development  as 
a  race,  and  ought  to  be  laid  aside  as  a 
garment  outgrown.  The  days  of  this 
particular  form  of  unbelief  are  num- 
bered. 

Why?  Because  it  is  to  be  demon- 
strated that  religion  is  something  more 
than  moonlight  vaporings  of  the  credu- 
lous, something  other  than  the  simple 
faith  of  children  ;  that  religion  is  not 
only  a  spiritual  reality,  but  that  it  has  a 
body  of  its  own. 


BEYOND.  37 

In  order  that  the  meaning  of  this 
statement  may  not  be  mistaken,  let  it 
be  remembered  that  some  of  the  most 
powerful  forms  of  matter,  electricity, 
for  example,  are  entirely  invisible. 

Therefore,  when  I  say  that  religion 
has  a  body  of  its  own,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  go  delving  for  anything.  That 
body  itself  may  be  undiscoverable  by 
any  sense  save  feeling.  Have  you  ever 
been  in  the  presence  of  a  man  who 
could  fairly  be  said  to  embody  religion  ? 
Of  those  wlio  manifest  its  spirit  so  pure 
and  unselfish,  there  are  comparatively 
few  in  the  world,  but  of  those  who,  to 
that  spirit,  add  a  full  manly  or  womanly 
strength,  the  number  is  brought  so  low 
that  multitudes  of  people  may  perhaps 
never  have  come  in  contact  with  any. 
Such  as  these  bear  about  with  them  a 
consciousness  of  power  so  great  as  to 
utterly  destroy  every  kind  of  fear  save 
one,    the   fear   of   doing   wrong.     The 


38  BEYOND. 

name  of  Savonarola  will  occur  to  many 
of  my  readers. 

It  ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  add 
that  I  am  using  the  word  religion  in  a 
different  sense  from  that  attaching  to  it 
in  such  a  phrase  as  the  World's  Parlia- 
ment of  Religions. 

If  I  should  say,  There  are  many  sci- 
ences, yet  science  is  one,  I  should  ex- 
pect to  be  fairly  well  understood. 

I  would  make  the  parallel  declara- 
tion. There  are  many  religions,  but  re- 
ligion is  one. 


BEYOND.  89 


CHAPTER  V. 

Is  there  any  common  ground  on 
which  science  and  religion  meet? 
There  is.  They  meet  in  modern  Spirit- 
ualism. 

But  because  modern  Spiritualism  con- 
sists of  a  body  of  facts  and  theories  on 
the  one  hand,  and  a  countless  number 
of  soul-stirring  experiences  on  the  other, 
it  follows  that  it  takes  a  great  many 
different  people  to  fairly  represent 
modern  Spiritualism. 

Some  have  devoted  themselves  to  it 
exclusively  on  the  religious  side,  others 
as  exclusively  on  the  scientific  side. 
According  to  the  bent  of  their  nature, 
and  with  an  equal  degree  of  courage, 
the  earnest,  devoted  students  of  science, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  those  of  religion, 


40  BEYOND, 

on  the  other,  are  approaching  from  op- 
posite poles  this  forbidden  ground. 

Disregarding  the  warnings  of  the 
older  religious  teachers,  that  evil,  and 
only  evil,  haunts  the  grewsome  place, 
one  wing  of  the  army  of  truth-seekers 
is  making  the  discovery  that  if  all  the 
manifestations  of  modern  spiritualism 
are  to  be  attributed  to  one  source,  and 
that  an  evil  one,  then  never  was  a  house 
so  divided  against  itself  before.  They 
are  prepared  to  show  that  some  of  its 
most  astonishing  phenomena  begin  and 
end  in  good  to  all  who  witness  them, 
and  they  declare  that  only  a  culpable 
misuse  of  the  powers  of  the  mind  would 
lead  to  any  other  inference  than  that 
these  good  results  come  originally  from 
good  sources,  and  are  therefore  worthy 
of  that  reverence  which  of  right  belongs 
to  the  good,  wherever  it  appears. 

The  other  wing  of  the  army  of  truth- 
seekers  also  contains  its  heroes.     Have 


BEYOND.  41 

you  not  told  us,  they  say  to  the  great 
scientists  who  have  laid  down  the  priur 
ciples  on  which  investigations  of  all 
kinds  should  be  conducted,  that  science 
claims  the  world  for  its  field,  and  espe- 
cially the  world  of  phenomena  ? 

Why,  then,  do  so  many  of  our  captains 
and  colonels,  who  should  represent  the 
thought  of  the  higher  officers,  so  per- 
sistently endeavor  to  prevent  us  from 
obtaining  for  ourselves  the  store  of  facts 
upon  which,  we  are  told,  the  theories  of 
spiritualism  are  based? 

Is  it  possible  for  us  to  have  intelli- 
gent opinions  even,  to  say  nothing  of 
carefully-drawn  conclusions  on  this  mat- 
ter, without  following  the  usual  course, 
so  strenuously  insisted  on  in  all  other 
branches  of  scientific  research,  that  of 
personally  observing  the  phenomena  for 
ourselves?  And  so  when  they  get  no 
answer  to  this,  or  no  answer  which  sat- 
isfies those  who  love  the  truth  for  its 


42  BEYOND. 

own  sake,  they  proceed,  these  scientific 
explorers,  and  with  caution  enter  the 
unknown  country,  avoiding,  as  far  as 
possible,  that  portion  which  they  recog- 
nize as  especially  occupied  by  the  other 
division  of  truth-seekers  before  de- 
scribed. 

And  they  find  no  lack  of  material 
upon  which  to  exercise  the  keenest 
faculties  of  their  minds,  while  their 
interest  becomes  so  great  that  they  are 
soon  ready  to  exclaim,  Why  was  I  kept 
away  from  here  so  long  ? 

All  indications,  say  they,  favor  the 
idea  that  in  this  direction  rather  than 
in  any  other  is  to  be  sought  tlie  solution 
of  that  profoundest  of  mysteries,  the 
problem  of  life,  and,  with  faces  aglow 
with  interest,  they  pursue  their  explo- 
rations, always  ready,  however,  to  de- 
clare that  they  have  not  changed  their 
course,  they  are  still  in  the  pursuit  of 
science  and  have  not  the  slightest  idea 


BEYOND.  43 

of  joining  hands  with  religionists  on 
any  pretext  whatever. 

All  of  which  goes  to  show  that  the 
realm  of  the  occult  may  be  conven- 
iently divided  into  two  grand  divi- 
sions, one  of  which  may  be  called  occult 
science,  and  the  other  occult  religion  ; 
and  that  part  of  both  which  has  been 
recently  brought  to  view  is  the  do- 
main known  as  modern  Spiritualism, 
where,  as  I  have  said,  science  and 
religion  meet.  I  wish  it  could  be  said 
that  scientists,  as  such,  and  religious 
teachers,  as  such,  have  also  not  only 
met,  but  shaken  hands  across  the  nar- 
row line  which  still  divides  them  even 
here,  on  this  which  I  have  called  a 
common  ground. 

But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  there  is 
all  too  little  thought  of  any  possible 
terms  of  peace  between  the  opposing 
forces. 

Let  us  hope  that  out  from  the  cloud}' 


44  BEYOND. 

mysteries  of  the  debatable  land  itself 
may  come  the  gleam  of  a  star  whose 
brightness  shall  illumine  all  who  lift 
their  eyes,  and  whose  pure,  sweet  in- 
fluence shall  change  foes  to  friends, 
as  heart  shall  answer  heart  beneath  its 
shining. 


BEYOND.  45 


CHAPTER  VI. 

There  are  many,  however,  who  have 
an  invincible  repugnance  to  this  method 
of  research,  and  I  would  here  say  for 
the  benefit  of  such,  that  while  I  am 
on  friendly  terms  with  spiritualists 
generally,  I  am  not  indebted  to  them 
for  what  I  have  to  give.  My  obser- 
vations of  the  phenomena  of  spiritu- 
alism, although  wide  and  varied,  have 
all  been  made  since  I  came  to  know, 
independently,  that  there  are  intelli- 
gences above  man,  and  that  there  is  a 
world  distinctly  different  from  this, 
where  they  have  their  home. 

Spiritualistic  phenomena,  as  observed 
through  mediums,  have,  in  a  general 
way,  confirmed  what  I  knew  in  regard 
to  the  other  world,  but  I  find  many  of 


46  BEYOND. 

the  prevalent  ideas  which  are  suppos- 
ably  based  on  these  phenomena  to  be 
erroneous  in  the  extreme.  For  in- 
stance, it  is  taught  as  a  doctrine  that 
there  is  no  death,  and  those  who  teach 
it  point  triumphantly  to  the  demon- 
strations of  the  survival  of  those 
whose  mortal  part  has  been  laid  in 
the  grave,  not  realizing  that  in  so  do- 
ing they  prove  themselves  to  be  still 
in  bondage  to  the  old  error,  that 
death  and  annihilation  are  one  and 
the  same,  and  that  consequently  who- 
ever has  escaped  the  one,  must  nec- 
essarily have  escaped  the  other. 

To  prove  that  a  man  who  has  severed 
his  connection  with  the  mortal  state  has 
not  suffered  annihilation,  proves  nothing 
whatever  as  to  his  acquaintance  with 
death. 

Even  the  passing  from  one  world  to 
the  other,  which  is  commonly  associated 
with  death,  is  not  the  same  thing,  for 


BEYOND.  47 

many  possess  the  power  of  so  passing 
while  still  tenants  of  the  clay. 

If  death,  then,  is  not  annihilation,  nor 
the  mere  passing  from  one  kind  of  life  into 
another,  what  is  it  ?  It  is  the  severing 
of  the  magnetic  bonds  which  unite  the 
body  of  the  individual  to  the  body  of  the 
race  as  a  whole. 

We  do  not  often  consider  what  an  im- 
portant element  in  our  lives  are  these 
magnetic  currents  which  link  us  to  our 
fellows. 

Silent  and  invisible  as  they  are,  they 
hold  us  with  a  tremendous  power. 
What  our  friends,  our  neighbors, 
our  relatives  think  us  capable  of  do- 
ing, that  we  can  do  with  comparative 
ease  ;  but  anything  out  of  the  common, 
calling  for  the  exercise  of  ability  which 
they  do  not  suppose  us  to  possess — how 
nearly  impossible  it  is  for  us  to  do  it, 
however  conscious  we  may  be  of  the  in- 
herent power  ! 


48  BEYOND. 

As  a  part  of  the  race  we  are  bound  to 
it  by  magnetic  currents  so  long  as  our 
mortal  life  continues,  and  the  cutting 
off  of  these  currents  by  death  may  be 
to  our  consciousness  the  greatest  mis- 
fortune or  the  greatest  happiness  we 
have  ever  known. 

Now  I  am  not  preaching,  I  am  simply 
stating  that  which  I  know  to  be  trile. 
I  know  it  in  the  same  way  that  I  know 
anything  wherein  experience  shuts  out 
even  the  shadow  of  a  doubt. 

To  speak  of  the  misfortune  of  death: 
suppose  you  were  a  clock  which  for 
twenty-five  years  had  been  a  part  of  the 
world's  life,  keeping  good  time  and  al- 
ways on  duty.  Then  suppose  you  were 
suddenly  laid  away  in  the  dark  and 
dusty  attic  of  a  warehouse  until  some 
estate  should  be  settled  that  would  re- 
quire an  indefinite  number  of  years. 

The  comparison  is  not  perfect.  The 
clock  is  not  only  mostly  automatic,  as 


BEYOND.  49 

we  are,  but  entirely  so.  That  in  our 
nature  which  is  essentially  free  is  not 
even  touched  by  death,  but  the  bodily 
activities  and  associations  may  be  our 
only  field  of  action,  and  these  are  cut 
off  absolutely,  while  memory  recalls 
every  event  of  the  life  that  is  finished, 
and  especially  every  decision  which  has 
had  the  slightest  influence  upon  our 
destiny.  The  positive  element  in  us 
which  has  found  constant  vent  in  phys- 
ical action  is  rendered  helpless  by  the 
complete  paralysis  of  all  the  motor 
nerves.  We  cannot  even  think,  for 
this  requires  some  movement  of  the 
brain.  A  consciousness  of  being  left 
behind  while  the  world  travels  on,  a 
feeling  that  this  experience  had  not 
been  foreseen  in  the  least,  nor  in  any  way 
provided  against,  spite  of  warnings  which 
now  seem  to  echo  and  re-echo  through 
the  darkness — these  are  what  is  left 
us  in  place  of  the  sunlight,  the  breezes 
4 


50  BEYOND. 

of  eveaing,  the  voices  of  children,  the 
light  of  the  stars. 

But  death  may  be  release,  it  may  be 
happiness,  it  may  be  ecstasy  beyond  the 
power  of  words  to  tell.  We  may  have 
cast  the  long  look  ahead  in  time.  We 
may  have  decided  that  since  bodily  life 
is  limited  at  best,  it  shall  not  be  first 
in  our  regards:  its  appetites,  its  de- 
mands, shall  not  take  precedence  above 
those  calls  which  find  their  answer  in 
the  depths  of  being,  calls  to  rise  out  of 
the  mire  of  reckless  self-indulgence,  and 
clothe  ourselves  in  the  garb  of  a  true 
manhood  and  womanhood,  taking  for  our 
model  those  who  count  not  their  life  dear 
unto  them,  but  reach  out  for  eternal 
values. 

The  pathway  is  not  wide,  arid 
they  who  pursue  it  may  find  themselves 
at  close  of  life  (I  am  not  speaking 
especially  of  old  age)  almost  alone. 
The  energies  of  the  spirit  have  grown  by 


BEYOND  61 

constant  exercise,  and  the  soul  has  grown 
strong,  imparting  its  vibrations  to  the 
body,  which  has  so  responded  that,  one 
after  another,  the  magnetic  links  which 
have  held  it  to  the  slower  progress  of 
the  race  have  snapped  asunder.  We  are 
far  ahead,  and  the  spirit  longs  for  purer 
air  than  it  can  find  on  earth.  We  have 
anticipated  all  the  pains  of  death.  We 
have  endured  tliem  in  our  struggle  for 
the  mastery  of  ourselves.  Death  now  but 
sets  the  seal  upon  our  victory,  gives  us 
the  freedom  we  have  earned,  ushers  us 
into  the  society  for  which  we  have  pre- 
pared ourselves,  crowns  us  heirs  of  im- 
mortality. 

Now,  whether  death  shall  be  this 
happiness  or  that  misery,  in  either  case 
it  will  be  remembered  as  a  great  fact  of 
consciousness,  the  greatest  ever  known, 
and  the  doctrine  that  there  is  no  death 
will  never  be  able  to  find  lodgment  in 
the  minds  of  those  who  have  experienced 
it. 


52  BEYOND, 


CHAPTER  VII. 

It  may  be  worth  our  while  to  inquire 
how  this  extremely  modern  doctrine 
came  into  being,  and  if  we  can  solve 
the  problem,  it  may  reflect  light  upon 
the  genesis  of  other  doctrines  very  much 
older  and  equally  erroneous. 

There  is  something  so  startling,  so 
unexpected,  in  the  phrase,  "  There  is 
no  death,"  that  we  are  quite  safe  in 
assuming  that  it  did  not  originate  in 
the  mind  of  a  mortal.  In  fact,  one 
would  be  obliged  first  to  disown  his 
mortality  before  he  could  utter  it  with 
any  consciousness  of  speaking  the  truth. 
If,  then,  the  words  have  come  from  the 
Beyond,  it  would  appear  that  some  super- 
mundane intelligence  has  been  promul- 
gating error.      But  let   us  not   be  too 


BEYOND.  53 

hasty.  Let  us  remember  that  in  our 
grandfather's  time  the  great  majority  of 
people  looked  upon  death  as  the  termi- 
nation of  existence.  It  was  an  impene- 
trable darkness.  Those  Avho  claimed  to 
know  anything  different  were  so  few, 
and  their  evidence  was  so  mysterious, 
as  to  have  a  scarcely  perceptible  effect 
on  this  portion  of  our  race.  Death  had 
come  to  mean  annihilation,  and  when 
the  age-long  dictum,  shutting  the  two 
worlds  apart,  was  removed,  those  spirit- 
teachers  who  were  commissioned  to 
scatter  tlie  darkness  were  obliged  to  use 
expedients.  Laying  aside  their  own 
understanding  of  the  word  death,  and 
taking  up  the  erroneous  meaning  at- 
tached to  it  by  those  whom  they  wished 
to  reach,  they  sent  out  this  incisive 
denial,  There  is  no  death.  The  para- 
phrase would  be.  There  is  no  such  death 
as  you  believe  in,  which  was  the  truth, 
and   had  the  effect  of  truth  upon  the 


54  BEYOND. 

minds  of  those  who  heard  it,  lifting 
them  out  of  the  darkness,  flashing  upon 
them,  light.  The  word  was  a  medicine 
of  wonderful  effect,  but  it  was  not  in- 
tended as  a  food,  and  spiritualists  of 
to-day  who  make  it  a  part  of  their  daily 
diet  are  most  seriously  injured  thereby. 
Who  that  has  ever  attended  the  average 
stance  but  can  recall  the  careless  tri- 
fling, the  insensate  levity,  of  many  while 
waiting  for  the  hour.  By  their  conduct 
they  seem  to  say,  What  is  death  more 
than  a  mere  journey  to  another  country? 
Or  a  stance,  what  is  it  more  than  a  tel- 
ephone office  ?  Most  startling  will  be 
the  event  to  such  as  these. 


BEYOND.  55 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

But  it  is  time  that  we  took  a  com- 
prehensive view  of  this  outer  world 
which  lies  beyond  the  domain  of  sense. 

What  is  the  most  striking  difference 
between  that  world  and  this  one  ?  I 
answer,  the  world  we  are  now  living  in 
is  a  material  world,  which  to  understand 
most  thoroughly  we  must  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  the  properties  of  matter. 
This  we  begin  to  do  in  earliest  child- 
hood by  the  use  of  our  senses,  and  this 
we  continue  to  do,  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent,  as  long  as  we  live,  calling  into 
play  the  reason,  highest  sense  of  all,  as 
soon  as  it  is  developed ;  and  by  the  use 
of  this,  the  royal  sense,  with  the  others 
as  its  servitors,  we  may  arrive  at  a  very 
thorough  comprehension  of  the  world  of 


56  BEYOND. 

matter,  so  far  as  its  relation  to  our 
needs  is  concerned. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  world  that 
lies  before  us  is,  above  all  else,  an  im- 
material world,  using  the  phrase  to  de- 
note an  almost  entire  absence  of  matter, 
but  not  in  the  least  to  indicate  any 
absence  of  reality.  No,  for  this  future 
life  is  a  reality  more  positive  in  its  char- 
acter than  the  foundations  of  the  pyr- 
amids, and  its  manifestations,  being 
neither  more  nor  less  than  the  mani- 
festations of  living  beings,  can  only  be 
understood  when  that  fact  is  kept  in 
mind.  They  do  not  lend  themselves  to 
the  inspection  of  the  curious,  these  deni- 
zens of  another  life,  but  when  condi- 
tions favor,  they  take  hold  of  human  in- 
strumentalities and  wield  them  with  a 
power  and  skill  that  defy  all  resistance 
for  the  time,  and  leave  on  all  who  are 
present  an  ineffaceable  mark. 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  statement 


BEYOND.  57 

is  incapable  of  proof,  that,  of  all  who 
have  crossed  the  line  between  life  and 
death,  none  have  returned  to  bring  posi- 
tive evidence  of  the  existence  of  such 
an  unknown  country,  inhabited  in  such 
a  way.  The  contrary  is  asserted,  and 
while  facts  do  not  need  the  bolster  of 
argument,  whoever  is  in  possession  of 
a  fact  can  present  arguments  relating 
thereto  tending  to  throw  light  upon  it. 
It  is  asserted  by  those  who  claim  to 
know,  of  whom  the  writer  is  one,  that 
an  inhabited  domain  is  in  immediate 
touch  with  the  earth,  although  not  dis- 
coverable by  any  of  the  scientific  instru- 
ments of  investigation,  such  as  the  tele- 
scope, the  microscope,  or  the  spectro- 
scope, nor  yet  by  the  surgeon's  scalpel. 
The  camera,  however,  which  may  be 
called  an  instrument  of  record,  has,  at 
certain  times,  produced  evidence  which 
has  excited  a  vast  amount  of  argument 
pro  and  con. 


58  BEYOND, 

This  will  not  now  be  entered  into,  but 
attention  is  called  to  a  very  important 
consideration  bearing  upon  the  whole 
subject. 


BEYOND.  59 


CHAPTER  IX. 

I  HOLD  in  my  hand  a  lens.  This  lens, 
in  its  shape,  resembles  a  certain  other 
lens  through  which  I  look  in  examin- 
ing it.  It  was,  indeed,  modeled  after 
the  other,  which  is  a  part  of  my  organ 
of  vision.  I  place  the  glass  lens  in  a 
microscope,  and  a  hitherto  unknown 
world  is  revealed  to  me.  It  was  there 
before,  but  I  could  not  see  it.  Do  I  see 
it  now  with  the  lens  f  It  is  evident  that 
the  lens  is  merely  an  aid  to  vision,  since 
the  lens  in  my  eye  is  also  necessary  to 
convey  the  picture  to  my  mind. 

But  now  another  question :  Do  I  see 
with  the  lens  which  is  a  part  of  my  eye  ? 
Is  not  that  also  merely  an  aid  to  vision? 
Let  us  consider.  Since  I  have  two  eyes, 
I  may  lose  one  of  them  without  losing 


60  BEYOND. 

the  power  to  see.  If  I  am  so  unfortu- 
nate as  to  lose  one,  then,  if  the  eye  is  not 
merely  an  aid  to  vision,  but  part  of  the 
vision  itself,  it  would  naturally  follow 
that  I  should  see  only  half  as  well  as 
before  ;  but  this,  very  evidently,  is  not 
true. 

I  can  read  as  well  as  ever.  For  the 
examination  of  anything  on  a  fiat  sur- 
face, one  eye  is  as  good  as  two. 

Notice,  also,  that  the  lens  of  the  eye 
and  the  glass  lens  are  not  only  alike  in 
shape  and  transparency,  but  that  both 
are  composed  of  material  substances 
that  can  be  analyzed,  and  that  both  are 
used  to  acquire  knowledge  of  such  sub- 
stances and  the  relations  existing  be- 
tween them.  The  glass  lens  is  merely 
a  supplement  to  the  lens  of  the  eye.  It 
is  one  step  further  removed  from  the 
vision,  but  even  the  lens  of  the  eye  it- 
self is  not  the  seeing  power.  That  lies 
back  of  all. 


BEYOND,  61 

Take  now  the  ear-trumpet,  a  contriv- 
ance to  concentrate  sound  to  a  given 
point.  It  is  intended  as  an  aid  to  hear- 
ing, but  it  is  not  inseparably  associated 
with  the  power  to  hear.  A  person 
with  normal  senses  does  very  well 
without  it.  How  about  the  ear  it- 
self? 

Does  that  constitute  a  part  of  the 
hearing  power  of  a  man?  If  it  does, 
what  is  the  necessity  of  the  auditory 
nerve  ?  If  the  hearing  and  the  ear 
were  one  and  the  same,  there  would  be 
no  need  of  this  connecting  link  with 
the  brain.  The  external  and  the  in- 
ternal ear,  like  the  ear-trumpet,  are 
purely  material,  and  by  means  of 
them  we  are  able  to  cognize  those 
material  emanations  called  sound. 

I  speak  of  sound  as  a  material 
emanation,  because  whatever  sound 
comes  to  us  through  the  ear  comes  from 
some  material  source.     Tlie  ear,  being 


62  BEYOND, 

material,  is  adapted  to  convey  such 
emanations  to  the  brain,  through  which 
the  mind  becomes  conscious  of  their 
existence. 

The  sense  of  touch,  also,  is  exclu- 
sively adapted  to  the  acquainting  of 
its  owner  with  still  another  aspect 
of  things  material.  Hardness,  softness, 
smoothness,  roughness,  heat,  cold,  and 
other  attributes  of  matter  become 
known  through  this  sense,  and  it  may 
be  considered  a  rule  without  excep- 
tion that  when  the  sense  of  touch  is 
excited,  some  material  object  is  respon- 
sible. The  same  thing  is  true  of  the 
senses  of  smell  and  taste,  but  as  their 
field  of  action  is  comparatively  limited, 
I  will  allow  the  first  three  named  to 
represent  the  whole  number. 

The  organs  of  sight,  hearing,  and 
touch,  then,  are  the  three  principal 
avenues  through  which  we  obtain 
knowledge  of  matter,  they  themselves, 


BEYOND.  68 

however  highly  organized,  being  also 
material. 

Now,  I  have  said  that  there  is  an 
inhabited  domain  in  immediate  touch 
with  the  earth,  although  not  dis- 
coverable by  any  of  the  scientific  instru- 
ments of  investigation.  Sight,  hearing, 
and  touch  do  not  sustain  this,  and 
declare  such  a  domain  non-existent. 
If  we  bear  in  mind  that  these  organs 
deal  with  matter  only,  it  may  be  freely 
admitted  that  they  speak  the  truth. 
The  world  whose  existence  we  are 
asserting  is  an  immaterial  world,  and 
although  it  be  immaterial,  it  can  be 
shown  that  it  has,  nevertheless,  a  claim 
upon  our  profound  attention. 

Certainly,  after  what  has  been  shown, 
it  ought  not  to  lose  in  interest  on  that 
account.  jPor,  if  our  hodily  senses  are^ 
hy  their  very  constitution^  unable  to 
bring  us  miy  reports  save  such  as  per- 
tain  to  matter^    their  silence  in    regard 


64  BEYOND, 

to    the   world    we    speak    of  counts  for 
nothing. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  all 
entities  are  material.  This  is  a  specious 
plea,  but  the  generalization  is  too 
broad.  Let  us  test  it  in  a  familiar 
way.  Benjamin  Franklin  was  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  attached  his  name  to  the 
immortal  document  in  a  clear  and 
legible  manner.  All  this  has  to  do 
with  matter.  Even  the  emotions 
which  he  may  be  supposed  to  have  ex- 
perienced while  affixing  his  naine,  al- 
though not  in  themselves  material,  had 
a  material  effect  upon  his  frame. 

I  say  that  those  emotions  were  not 
in  themselves  material.  I  might  take 
my  stand  here,  but  prefer  to  go  one  step 
further,  and  put  a  question:  Wliat 
were  those  emotions?  and  then  add. 
This  question  is  not  in  itself  material. 

It  might  be  made  a  subject  of  thought. 


BEYOND,  65 

An  essay  might  be  written  upon  it, 
which  would  be  esteemed  good,  bad,  or 
indifferent,  according  as  the  author 
rightly  apprehended  the  character  of 
the  man. 

The  question  may  never  have  been 
put  into  language  before,  but  it  is 
now  a  real  entity,  and  our  mental 
powers,  acting  freely,  will  have  no 
trouble  in  so  regarding  it.  It  will  be 
seen  that,  while  it  may  become  associated 
with  things  material,  may  be  written  so 
as  to  be  seen,  spoken  so  a^  to  be  heard, 
or  even  stamped  to  reach  the  apprehen- 
sion of  the  blind,  these  material  associa- 
tions are  no  essential  part  of  the  ques- 
tion, since  it  might  arise  in  the  mind 
without  any  such  aid,  and  be  examined 
there  without  calling  into  play  any  one 
of  the  bodily  senses,  or  any  combination 
of  them. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  is  an  idle 
question,  unworthy  to  take  an  impor- 
5 


66  BEYOND. 

tant  place  in  an  argument,  but  it  can- 
not be  said  that  it  is  a  foolish  question ; 
arid  it  may  well  stand  as  a  representa- 
tive of  other  questions,  questions  which 
might  have  been  substituted  ;  questions 
which  have  arisen  in  many  minds  at 
the  same  time,  and  the  answering  of 
which  has  involved  the  overthrow  of 
kingdoms,  thereby  demonstrating,  if 
necessary,  the  reality  of  their  existence. 


BEYOND.  67 


CHAPTER  X. 

In  order  to  make  progress  in  the 
search  for  wisdom,  it  is  necessary  that 
we  should  bind  ourselves  to  follow 
where  truth  may  lead. 

We  cannot  maintain  our  name  as  fol- 
lowers of  the  truth,  if,  whenever  her 
footsteps  turn  in  some  particular  direc- 
tion, we  refuse  to  follow,  or  if,  when- 
ever the  path  leads  in  the  direction  in 
which  we  have  predetermined  not  to 
travel,  we  begin  to  cast  aspersions  on 
the  sincerity  of  our  leader. 

All  who  would  attain  the  freedom 
which  large  possessions  give,  must 
learn  sometimes  to  lay  aside  prejudice 
of  every  kind,  and  follow  according 
to  the  general  law  which  bids  us  pro- 
ceed until  some   real   obstacle   presents 


68  BEYOND. 

itself,  or  some  real  danger  confronts 
us. 

My  illustration  has  led  us  to  the 
point  where  it  appears  that  we  are  able 
to  say,  Realities  are  not  always  material 
in  their  nature.  In  other  words,  mate- 
riality and  reality  are  not  inseparably 
associated.  They  may  be  separately 
considered,  and  dealt  with  as  though 
not  related.  The  question.  What  were 
Franklin's  emotions  when  signing  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  ?  is  a  real 
question.  In  the  world  of  mind  it  has 
a  reason  for  existence,  and  because  the 
world  of  mind  is  associated  with  the 
world  of  matter,  and,  in  some  ways  at 
least,  takes  precedence,  that  which  is 
real  in  its  domain  may  be  asserted 
as  real  in  the  presence  and  by  use 
of  some  of  the  appliances  of  the 
latter. 

The  converse  of  the  truth,  that  real- 
ities may  be  devoid  of  materiality,  may 


BEYOND.  69 

be  given  here  as  an  aid  to  the  under- 
standing. 

Material  things  are  not  always  real  in 
their  nature.  The  scenery  of  the  stage, 
the  portrait  in  oil,  effigies  in  wax  are 
familiar  illustrations,  and  it  will  be  ob- 
served that  none  of  these  are  intended 
to  deceive.  They  are  merely  examples 
of  material  things  used  in  an  unreal 
way. 

In  looking  at  them,  we  may,  by  the 
powers  of  mind  which  we  possess,  endow 
them  with  a  temporary  reality,  which 
will  aid  in  producing  mental  results,  or 
we  may  refuse  to  so  endow  them,  in 
which  case  they  remain  barren  of  effect 
upon  us.  I  have  given  examples  of 
things  real  but  not  material,  and  of 
things  material  but  not  real.  Take 
another  example  of  the  first  of  these  : 
The  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Animals  rests  upon  a  basis  that  is 
not  material.     It  rests  upon  an  idea.     If 


70  BEYOND. 

the  idea  that  cruelty  to  animals  is 
harmful,  not  only  to  them,  but  to  those 
who  inflict  it  upon  them,  could  be  at 
some  future  time  disproved,  then  we 
should  expect  that  the  society  would 
disappear.  At  present  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  the  society  has  a  real  founda- 
tion which  is  in  no  danger  of  being 
destroyed. 


BEYOND.  71 


CHAPTER  XL 

It  will  readily  be  seen  that  to  take 
firmly  the  position  that  realities  may  be 
devoid  of  materiality  involves  a  great 
deal,  and  those  who  endeavor  to  prevent 
this  thought  from  taking  root  in  any 
particular  mind  are  apt  to  hold  up 
before  him  examples  of  the  immaterial 
which  are  not  real.  Most  dreams  are 
of  this  nature.  Their  confused  outlines 
make  temporary  impressions  on  the 
memory  and  are  then  forgotten.  But 
we  have  not  to  do  with  such  as  these. 
We  recognize  that  real  things  may  be 
material,  such  as  certain  houses,  lands, 
or  mountains,  and  that  unreal  things  may 
be  immaterial,  like  passing  dreams  just 
spoken  of;  but  the  immaterial  which  is 


72  BEYOND. 

none  the  less  real  is  what  we  bring  into 
view.  And  if  we  are  ready  to  admit, 
or  to  go  further  and  declare,  that  reality 
and  materiality  are  not  necessarily  con- 
joined, we  are  then  ready  to  give  a  fair 
hearing  to  the  statement  that  a  real  but 
immaterial  world,  inhabited  by  real  but 
immaterial  beings,  is  in  closest  relations 
with  our  own. 

These  real  but  immaterial  beings, 
because  they  are  real  and  intelligent, 
are  possessed  of  the  primal  attributes 
of  all  intelligent  beings :  they  have 
memory,  feeling,  emotion,  will. 

In  power  they  differ  widely  from  each 
other,  and  in  their  essential  character 
there  are  as  many  shades  of  difference 
as  with  mortals. 

Let  us  speak  first  of  their  power. 
This  is  mostly  exercised  in  their  own 
field,  that  of  the  immaterial,  yet  to  sup- 
pose that  it  is  any  the  less  real  in  its 
effects  upon  our  lives  is  to  forget  how 


BEYOND,  73 

small  a  part  our  senses  directly  play  in 
influencing  our  motives.  The  end  and 
object  of  our  efforts  may  be  to  obtain 
the  means  to  gratify  our  senses  or  those 
of  our  friends,  but  the  process  through 
which  we  are  obliged  to  work  is  so  com- 
plicated, it  involves  the  play  of  so  many 
forces,  it  brings  us  into  relations  with 
so  many  people,  each  with  his  own 
plans  and  purposes,  that  we  are  con- 
tinually making  decisions  based  upon 
what  we  consider  as  probable,  rather 
than  certain,  results.  This  is  the  op- 
portunity of  the  spirits,  and  we  often 
discover  that  all  our  efforts  have  simply 
tended  to  the  advancement  of  others, 
while  we  are  left  in  the  lurch.  The 
man  who  keeps  his  temper  under  such 
circumstances  may  be  favored  by  the 
receipt  of  a  thought-message.  It  enters 
his  mind  as  ideas  do,  with  a  flash,  and 
if  he  is  wise  he  will  carefully  elaborate 
it  into  words.     I  have  been  working  for 


74  BEYOND. 

myself  only,  bending  everything  as  far  as 

possible  to  my  own  enrichment.     Others 

have  been  doing  the  same.     What  right 

have  I  to  complain  if  they  have  done 

with  me,  by  their  superior  power  and 

foresight,  what  I  have  tried  to  do  with 

them  ?     None  at  all. 

Morally  we  are  on  the   same  level. 

Let    this    misfortune    be    a  lesson  to 

me.     Henceforth  I  will   at  least  make 

an   effort   to   do   as   I   would   be  done 

by. 

As  he  makes  this  resolution,  a  warm 

glow  suddenly  pervades  his  being.     He 

feels  at  once  lighter  and  stronger,  and 

then  perhaps  he  does  a  little  thinking 

for  himself.     "  If  I  believed  in  angels, 

I  should  say  that  they  were  near,  and 

touched  me  then  ;  I  never  felt  anything 

like   it."     Little   does   he   suspect   the 

truth,  that  the  whole  idea  which  he  so 

carefully  elaborated  in   his   mind  had 

been  flashed  into  it  from  without  by  an 


UNIVERSIT '' 

BEYOND.  75 

angel-friend,  and  that  when  it  had  borne 
its  natural  fruit  in  a  good  resolution,  it 
became  possible  for  the  same  friend  to 
convey  to  him  a  touch  of  her  own 
delight. 

It  may  be  objected  that  illustrations 
like  these  prove  nothing  as  to  the  source 
of  the  experience  ;  that  to  deny  that 
invisible  intelligences  so  play  upon  men 
is  as  rational,  or  more  so,  as  to  say  they 
do.  But  we  are  not  limited  to  such 
comparatively  indefinite  evidence.  For 
nearly  fifty  years  it  has  been  permitted, 
or  commanded,  or  both,  that  these  in- 
visible beings  should  demonstrate  the 
reality  of  continued  existence,  and  they 
have  been  doing  so  in  a  great  variety 
of  ways.  For  particulars,  reference  is 
made  to  the  periodical  literature  de- 
voted to  the  subject,  and  to  the  scores 
of  books  which  have  been  written  upon 
it. 

It   is   not   my   purpose,  however,  to 


76  BEYOND, 

enter  into  this  field  of  evidence  with 
an}^  approach  to  minutiae,  for  it  was  not 
here  that  I  acquired  the  ability  to  say, 
The  occult  world  is  a  real,  inhabited  do- 
main.    I  know  whereof  I  speak. 


BEYOND.  77 


CHAPTER  XII. 

In  searching  for  truth  in  the  fields  of 
thought,  we  often  run  counter  to  our  own 
prejudices,  and  almost  unconsciously 
call  a  halt.  There  are  some  whose  self- 
conceit  is  so  great  that  they  invariably 
do  so  the  moment  that  any  of  their  prej- 
udices is  in  the  slightest  danger  of  a 
shock.  But  it  is  rather  to  the  seeker 
who  has  in  part  divested  himself  from 
this  hampering  load,  which  he  had 
perhaps  inherited  like  a  humor  of  the 
blood,  that  I  now  speak. 

What  is  to  be  done  ?  How  proceed 
in  such  a  case  ?  The  remedy  is  simple. 
Whenever  you  are  dealing  with  abstract 
ideas,  and  find  one  that  is  refractory, 
either  in  itself  for  want  of  further  an- 
alysis, or  because  of  some  special  weak- 


78  BEYOND. 

ness  of  yours  which  incapacitates  you 
from  subduing  it,  never  give  it  up ;  if 
you  do,  you  will  find  yourself  under  it 
like  a  toad  under  a  stone  for  an  indefi- 
nite length  of  time.  No,  the  right  thing 
to  do  is  to  pass  at  once  from  the  abstract 
to  the  concrete,  and  find  in  material 
things  the  counterpart  of  the  truth 
under  examination,  and  then  proceed. 
The  effect  is  often  wonderful. 

To  illustrate.  Suppose  you  are  ex- 
amining the  abstract  idea  of  the  ex- 
pediency of  doing  right.  You  may  have 
some  particular  case  in  mind,  probably 
will  have,  if  the  decision  is  to  count  for 
anything  in  your  life.  You  may  call  to 
mind  the  famous  saying.  It  is  better  to 
be  right,  than  to  be  president.  You  will 
recognize  the  principle  involved  in  this, 
but  is  it  of  universal  application?  you 
may  inquire.  Is  there  not  some  way 
by  which  I  can  take  the  free-and-easy 
course  and  yet  incur  no  penalty?      A 


BEYOND.  79 

great  many  people  appear  to  be  able  to, 
why  should  not  I  ?  This  is  the  point 
where  you  need  to  transfer  the  case 
from  the  abstract  to  the  concrete  form, 
and  ask  yourself.  Suppose  I  were  mixing 
chemicals  according  to  a  certain  formula 
to  produce  a  certain  compound,  and 
suppose  one  of  the  ingredients  were 
wanting.  Should  I  go  ahead  and  trust 
to  luck,  and  expect  to  get  the  compound 
just  the  same  as  though  I  followed  the 
directions  ?  Surely  not.  What  would 
the  science  of  chemistry  amount  to  if 
such  a  thing  were  possible  ?  How  could 
anything  new  be  discovered  if  the  gov- 
erning principles  could  not  be  depended 
on,  or,  in  other  words,  if  like  causes  did 
not  always  produce  like  effects,  and 
unlike  causes,  unlike  effects  ? 

The  most  intrepid  explorer  in  the 
scientific  field  might  well  despair  of  the 
prospect  in  such  a  case.  But  this  is 
chemistry,  and  the  laws  of  conduct  are 


80  BEYOND. 

not  so  rigid,  you  may  say.  That  is  just 
where  you  miss  the  path.  Until  you 
attain  to  a  belief  in  the  unity  pervading 
all  things,  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest,  this  unity  differing  in  outward 
appearance  or  manifestation  only,  and 
not  in  essential  character,  you  will  find 
no  peace  nor  rest.  The  laws  of  conduct 
less  rigid  than  the  laws  of  chemistry  ? 
Say,  rather,  infinitely  more  so.  For  the 
higher  the  plane  of  action,  the  less  like- 
lihood is  there  of  any  superior  force  in- 
terposing to  divert  the  current  of  events 
from  its  natural  course  ;  and  the  laws 
of  conduct,  remember,  pertain  to  the  life 
of  the  soul,  which  makes  them  higher 
than  the  laws  of  chemistry  by  two 
removes,  for  the  laws  of  health  relat- 
ing to  the  physical  body  come  in  be- 
tween. 

But  the  laws  of  conduct  are  not  well 
understood,  you  say.  That,  indeed,  is 
true.     We  have  only  a  few  keys  open- 


BEYOND.  81 

ing  into  this  realm  of  the  soul,  and  most 
people  are  content  to  take  public  opin- 
ion as  a  sufficient  guide  rather  than 
to  take  the  trouble  to  explore  for  them- 
selves. 

But  it  is  the  plane  just  below  this, 
that  of  bodily  life  and  death,  which  we 
are  attempting  more  especially  to  eluci- 
date. There  seems  to  be  no  systematic 
teaching  in  regard  to  this  that  is  worthy 
of  the  name  of  science. 

The  problem  of  life  itself,  what  it  is 
as  a  force  differing  from  other  forces, 
how  to  deduce  from  the  manifestations 
of  vitality  what  vitality  is,  remains 
unsolved.  And  why  so  ?  For  a  very 
simple  reason.  Because  those  who  at- 
tempt the  problem  are  unwilling  or  un- 
able to  conform  to  the  conditions  which 
they  recognize  as  necessary  in  all  other 
departments  of  scientific  research.  They 
do  not  study  life  objectively.  They  may 
think  they  do.     They  may  think  that  to 


82  BEYOND. 

study  life  in  other  men  or  in  animals  is 
a  truly  objective  method,  but  this  is  a 
fallacy. 

The  theory  that  life  needs  to  be  stud- 
ied from  an  outside  standpoint  in  order 
to  be  comprehended,  is  all  right,  but 
the  man  who  uses  his  own  life-force  in 
studying  that  of  other  men  or  animals 
is  not  outside  the  subject  of  his  thought 
at  all.  The  active  currents  of  his  own 
being  continually  intervene  to  obscure 
the  processes  of  thought  and  render  his 
conclusions  valueless. 

It  may  be  true  that  no  other  method 
which  can  be  called  objective  is  im- 
mediately apparent,  but  it  does  not  fol- 
low that  there  is  no  other ;  and  if  we 
simply  enlarge  our  ideas  of  what  is 
possible,  we  shall  find  the  true  method 
to  be  just  what  we  ought  rationally  to 
expect,  and  that  is  this  :  The  student 
who  wishes  to  solve  this  problem,  either 
for   his    own    satisfaction    or   for    the 


BEYOND.  83 

enlightenment  of  others,  must  eliminate 
from  the  problem  the  one  disturbing 
element,  his  personal  life-force. 


84  BEYOND. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Does  it  seem  absurd  to  say  that,  in 
order  to  study  life,  a  man  must  die  ? 
For  that  is  what  this  method  amounts  to 
in  the  last  analysis. 

Now,  I  beg  of  you  not  to  be  unneces- 
sarily alarmed.  I  have  said  nothing 
about  burial.  If  death  were  only  another 
name  for  annihilation,  then  death  and 
burial  would  be  inseparably  associated, 
no  doubt.  But  suppose  it  should  be 
true  that  it  is  an  error  to  associate  the 
thought  of  annihilation  with  any  man, 
is  it  not  clear  that  whoever  permits 
that  error  to  have  any  place  in  his  mind 
is  sure  to  give  a  meaning  to  the  word 
death  which  does  not  belong  to  it  ?  Is 
it  not  evident  that  the  thought  of 
death   in  that  case  must  borrow  black- 


BEYOND.  85 

ness  and  mystery  of  a  kind  that  does 
not  pertain  to  it  ?  Most  surely.  But 
let  it  be  said  again,  that  death  is  a 
reality  ;  it  is  not  a  fiction,  nor  a  mere 
seeming.  A  man  cannot  possess  bod- 
ily life  and  at  the  same  time  be  dead. 
The  two  conditions  are  incompatible. 
Otherwise  there  would  be  no  advantage 
to  be  gained  toward  the  study  of  life  by 
experiencing  its  opposite. 

Shall  I  try  to  tell  you,  from  the  stand- 
point of  experience,  what  death  is  ? 
Perhaps  it  will  be  best  to  tell  you  first 
what  it  is  not.  It  is  not  a  snuffing-out 
like  a  candle,  unless  we  could  suppose 
one  where  the  spark  should  remain 
quietly  alive  until  the  candle  was  re- 
lighted. 

It  is  not  a  going  to  sleep,  unless  we 
assume  it  possible  for  the  dream-life  to 
be  woven  on  to  the  daytime  consciousness 
at  both  ends  without  a  break,  so  that  the 
dreamer,  however  strange  may  have  been 


86  BEYOND. 

his  dreams,  and  whatever  the  testimony 
of  others  may  be,  is  able  to  say,  with 
conscious  truthfulness,  I  have  not  slept 
at  all. 

Death  includes,  without  question, 
an  entire  suspension  of  bodily  sensa- 
tions and  activities.  The  conscious- 
ness of  being^  however,  remains,  and 
with  it,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  the 
consciousness  of  being  alive,  however 
shut  in  by  the  enclosing  walls  of  a 
senseless  frame. 

What  is  to  follow  does  not  occur  to 
the  mind.  A  peace  that  is  absolute 
belongs  to  a  death  that  is  clean.  Appe- 
tite of  every  kind  is  dead  with  the  body. 
Desire  is  not ;  resignation  takes  its  place. 
What  is  this  resignation  like?  It  in- 
cludes a  consciousness  of  a  more  potent 
yet  kindly  will,  and  contentment  with 
the  result  of  the  action  of  that  will. 

The  Giver  has  resumed  His  gift,  the 
gift  of  life,  for  the  benefit  of  him  who 


BEYOND,  87 

has  parted  with  it.  The  resulting  peace 
is  permeated  with  gratitude,  not  differ- 
ent in  kind,  although  different  in  mani- 
festation, from  that  which  the  little 
child  expresses  in  every  motion  of  his 
happy  little  body,  when  he  seems  to 
say  continuously,  I  am  glad  to  be  alive. 
The  man  is  glad  to  be  dead. 

Do  you  think  it  impossible  that  such 
an  experience  could  come  to  any  one 
who  should  afterwards  recover  life  to 
describe  it?  Very  likely.  But  stop 
for  a  moment  and  consider.  When  a 
man  dies,  the  result  may  be  said  to 
manifest  in  a  twofold  way.  First:  To 
the  man  himself,  who  is,  to  say  the 
the  least,  cut  off  from  his  customary 
outward  activities.  Second :  To  the 
world  at  large,  where  the  word  is  passed 
around.  Such  a  one  is  dead ;  and  one 
acquaintance  after  another,  as  he  hears 
the  news,  turns  to  a  certain  part  of  his 
mental  organism  and  marks  it  down  in 


88  BEYOND, 

black  where  it  is  not  likely  to  be  for- 
gotten. Henceforth  he  will  send  out 
toward  that  friend,  now  become  a  name 
or  memory,  a  different  kind  of  mental 
current. 

But  wait :  the  word  comes,  Not  dead 
after  all — a  false  report.  Immediately 
the  operation  is  reversed.  The  black 
marks  are  rubbed  out,  the  little  switch 
is  re-turned,  and  the  friends  all  agree,  to 
save  troublesome  thought,  that  the  man 
who  was  supposed  to  be  dead  was  not 
really  so,  and  the  old  question  asked  by 
Job,  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ? 
is  prevented  once  more  from  obtruding 
itself. 


BEYOND.  89 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

My  aim  is  to  make  this  book  practi- 
cal, that  is,  to  clothe  its  thought  in  such 
garb  as  to  render  it  available  for  use, 
not  to  scholars  merely,  but  to  all 
thoughtful  minds. 

I  shall  endeavor  in  this  chapter  to 
gather  up  a  few  missing  links  in  my 
train  of  thought,  and  afterwards  en- 
deavor to  give  you  a  glimpse  of  the 
Beyond.  The  question  I  seem  called 
upon  to  answer  is,  How  can  a  man  be 
alive  and  dead  at  the  same  time  ?  and 
in  order  to  answer  it,  it  will  be  nec- 
essary to  analyze  the  thought  called 
death,  and  separate  it  into  its  various 
parts. 

The  man  is  dead,  says  local  report, 
and  the  consciousness  of  society  under- 


90  BEYOND, 

goes  that  natural  change  in  regard  to 
the  man  which  I  have  described. 

His  name  becomes  associated  with 
things  that  were,  but  no  longer  are. 
Even  those  who  theoretically  believe 
that  the  man  continues  to  live  either  in 
happiness  or  misery,  have,  most  of  them, 
so  little  confidence  in  the  theory  which 
they  have  subscribed  to,  that  they  never 
dream  of  putting  forth  a  mental  current 
based  on  the  theory.  To  all  intents  and 
purposes,  society  consigns  the  average 
man  to  annihilation,  with  a  half-careless 
"  Poor  fellow,  so  he's  gone.  We'll  see 
no  more  of  him.  Well,  no  time  to 
weep,  seeing  as  he  didn't  leave  me  any- 
thing. What  new  device  for  entrapping 
the  elusive  dollar  shall  I  conjure  up 
to-day?" 

I  am  dead,  says  the  man  Iiimself  as 
the  shadows  which  have  been  gathering 
upon  his  senses  culminate  in  a  rayless 
silence,  and  every  thought  of  motion 


BEYOND.  91 

becomes  a  recollection,  a  mere  theory  of 
fancy,  that  will  not  even  approach  the 
dominion  of  the  will. 

Death,  as  a  state  of  consciousness,  is 
a  thing  entirely  new  to  him,  but  he  can- 
not reason  on  the  subject.  To  reason 
is  to  live,  to  set  the  brain  in  motion,  to 
perform  mental  operations ;  this  is  no 
longer  possible. 

What  shall  this  state  be  compared  to  ? 
It  is  like  that  of  one  isolated  in  a 
secret  cell  of  his  own  house,'  the  key 
turned  on  him  from  the  outside,  every 
avenue  of  communication  cut  off,  dead 
to  the  world  and  all  that  it  contains. 
If  a  total  loss  of  appetite  can  be  associ- 
ated with  the  state,  it  might  continue 
for  an  indefinite  period ;  and  if  the 
power  of  thought-transference  comes  in, 
a  new  kind  of  life  has  been  begun. 

But  science  says  that  no  man  is  really 
dead  who  still  retains  his  consciousness, 
by  which  statement  science  belies   its 


92  BEYOND, 

name.  Calling  itself  knowledge,  it 
spreads  abroad  its  own  ignorance.  How 
many  a  post-mortem  has  been  held  in 
the  hope  of  finding  the  secret  chamber 
wherein  that  part  of  man  which  cannot 
die  has  gone  to  rest !  How  often  the 
sweet  peace  of  death  has  become  a  con- 
scious madness,  by  this  means,  God 
only  knows.     Gentlemen,  desist. 

To  find  a  chamber  whose  occupant  is 
invisible  debars  you  forever  from  ob- 
taining the  proof  that  you  have  found 
it.  But  perhaps  it  is  not  the  soul  itself 
that  is  the  object  of  this  search,  but 
rather  some  special  physical  representa- 
tive that  might  be  found  still  quivering 
with  life  and  so  betray  its  master.  All 
folly. 

The  soul  when  uncontaminated  in- 
forms the  whole  outward  body.  It  has 
its  pains  and  illnesses,  more  or  less  af- 
fecting the  outer  form,  yet  all  unrecog- 
nized in  materia  medica,  and  when  its 


BEYOND.  93 

moi'tal  brother  is  struck  with  death, 
bends  all  its  energies  to  make  escape, 
lest  it,  too,  take  on  mortality.  Failing 
in  its  effort  to  make  a  doorway  for  its 
exit,  it  suffers  for  awhile  through  sym- 
pathy, till  the  final  moment  sets  it  free 
from  pain  within  its  small  dark  house, 
no  longer  small,  because  made  clear, 
transparent,  by  the  touch  of  death,  when 
the  dying  has  been  brave.  No  trace  of 
foreign  matter  may  remain  to  start  a 
dissolution,  in  which  case  the  soul  pre- 
serves the  body  from  decay  without 
more  trouble  than  a  little  watchful 
care. 

Sight,  hearing,  touch,  through  vibra- 
tory currents  reach  round  the  world  and 
even  touch  the  clouds  ;  the  body  has 
become,  in  fact,  a  mansion  perfectly 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  its  proprietor, 
who  finds  a  new  world  open  to  his  de- 
lighted consciousness,  and  thanks  God 
fervently  for   his   perfect  victory  over 


94  BEYOND, 

death,  as  well  as  for  his  comfort  and 
protection  within  the  white,  still  walls 
which  form,  in  fact,  the  first  abiding- 
place  of  the  spirit. 

With  this  still  form  as  passive  aid, 
the  soul,  with  little  pain,  is  able  to 
make  the  mental  transition  which  its 
change  of  circumstance  requires.  No 
longer  concerned  directly  with  any- 
thought  based  on  material  needs  or 
material  changes,  it  finds  itself  in  touch 
with  the  moral  causes  which  underlie 
these  changes ;  and  because  moral  force 
is  most  familiarly  manifest  in  and 
through  people,  these,  and  their  rela- 
tions to  itself,  fill  all  the  mental  horizon. 

In  this  new  field  of  perception,  noth- 
ing impresses  more  than  the  enormous 
differences  in  spiritual  rank  and  attain- 
ment existing  among  mortals  who, 
judged  by  tape-line  and  scale,  stood 
fairly  equal,  and  whom  human  law 
necessarily  places  on  a  plane  of  perfect 


BEYOND.  95 

equality,  or  perhaps,  through  its  defer- 
ence to  wealth,  makes  unequal  in  the 
wrong  way. 

The  thoroughness  with  which  past 
illusions  are  stripped  away  from  the 
mind  tends  to  leave  the  spirit  fairly 
aghast  at  its  previous  blindness. 

Frequently  forgetting  that  the  motor 
nerves  of  the  physical  form  are  no 
longer  responsive  to  its  touch,  it  starts 
to  rise,  that  it  may  go  and  tell  the 
world  of  these  wonders  just  discovered, 
but  finds  itself  in  the  firm  and  quiet 
grasp  of  death,  a  touch  that  seems  to 
speak  and  say : 

"  Never  mind ;  that  is  all  right.  You 
forget  you  are  not  free.  Lie  still  and 
learn  your  lesson." 

''  But  shall  I  not  return  ?  " 

"  Possibly,  but  the  mortal  life  is  no 
concern  of  yours  at  present.  You  are 
dead." 

All  this  as  in  a  flash,  for  words  do 


96  BEYOND. 

not  belong  to  this  state,  ideas  rather, 
the  spiritual  essences  of  thought  that 
seem  to  need  no  time  whatever  to  make 
their  mark  upon  the  mind. 

To  some  of  these  the  mind  is  so  re- 
ceptive that  they  sink  at  once  to  the 
very  core  of  being,  while  others  are 
held  upon  the  surface. 

This  last  communication.  You  are 
dead,  is  sure  to  be  so  held.  It  seems 
such  an  evident  conclusion  to  respond. 
If  I  am  dead,  there  is  no  death ;  but 
this  seems  such  a  contradiction  to  life's 
long  lesson,  namely,  that  amidst  a  wil- 
derness of  uncertainties,  death  is  the  one 
thing  certain.  And  then  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  shrinking  of  the  soul  at 
thought  of  death,  how  to  account  for 
that,  if  there  were  no  reality  behind 
appearances  so  countless? 

This  in  another  flash  of  ideation  that 
leaves  a  sense  of  mystery  as  of  a  problem 
not  worked  out,  and  which  may  not  be 


BEYOND.  97 

while  death  as  a  condition  rests  upon 
the  form.  I  say,  may  not  be,  but 
would  not  be  understood  to  mean  that 
the  hindrance  is  mechanical  in  this  case. 
A  pure  soul,  even  in  death,  has  certain 
reserve  forces  which  can  be  put  in  action 
if  the  need  is  great  enough,  but  the 
consciousness  of  being  in  a  friend's  con- 
trol, especially  when  that  control  is 
apparently  absolute,  will  tend  to  check 
all  restless  impulse  in  this  region  of  the 
dark,  till  now  all  unexplored. 
7 


BEYOND. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

But  if  the  soul  might  not  take  up 
and  solve  the  problem  for  want  of  time 
and  space,  we  at  this  writing  are  not  so 
limited. 

First,  let  us  state  it  clearly.  If  death 
does  not  mean  a  loss  of  consciousness 
necessarily,  what  is  its  distinguishing 
feature  as  compared  with  life?  And 
what,  if  anything,  is  there  in  it  to  dread  ? 
The  confusion  of  mind  so  general  on 
these  topics  can  be  accounted  for  in  a 
very  simple  manner. 

The  body  has  its  life  and  its  death, 
and  the  soul  has  its  life  and  its  death, 
and  we  have  but  two  words  to  describe 
the  four  conditions.  This  makes  it  so 
nearly  impossible  to  generalize  on  the 


BEYOND.  99 

subject  and  at  the  same  time  maintain 
clearness. 

For  while  the  student  of  natural  his- 
tory attributes  life  and  death  to  the  body 
alone,  and  the  idealist  goes  to  the  other 
extreme  and  makes  life  and  death  purely 
subjective — attributes  of  mind,  not  mat- 
ter— the  philosopher  who  would  have 
his  mind  open  on  both  sides,  not  only  to 
those  thoughts  which  enter  unheralded, 
but  also  to  those  which  seem  to  have 
their  origin  in  physical  vibrations  and 
enter  the  sensorium  through  the  body, 
— the  philosopher,  I  say,  finds  it  neces- 
sary to  discriminate  carefully  in  the  use 
of  these  words,  life  and  death,  and  to 
make  it  clear  which  is  meant,  the  body 
or  the  soul,  whenever  he  attributes 
either  condition  to  man. 

I  have  said  the  two  words  cover  four 
conditions.  What  are  they  ?  In  the 
first  the  body  is  alive,  and  the  soul  is 
alive.     Beautiful  condition  of  ingenuous 


100  BEYOND, 

youth  !  In  the  second,  the  body  is  alive, 
and  the  soul  dead.  The  man  who  by 
a  course  of  persistent  indulgence  in 
all  manner  of  crime  and  sensuality  has 
stifled  the  voice  of  conscience,  and 
finally  reached  the  point  where  he  is 
ready  to  say,  "  Evil,  be  thou  my  good," 
attains  to  a  form  of  quiet. 

The  soul  dies,  and  its  decaying 
powers  are  absorbed  by  the  body,  which 
becomes  henceforth  an  embodied  poison, 
most  dangerous  and  even  deadly  to  the 
contact  of  the  sensitive. 

The  third  condition  is  that  of  the 
soul  first  described,  in  which  the  body 
has  either  temporarily  or  permanently 
parted  with  its  life,  while  the  soul  re- 
mains intact.  Still  a  part  of  the  world's 
seething  life,  because  action  and  reaction 
of  the  powerful  causative  soul-currents 
continue  with  such  a  soul,  the  interment 
of  the  body  will  decide  whether  the 
temporary  physical  death  shall  become 


BEYOND.  101 

permanent  or  not.  In  those  exceptional 
cases  where  the  body  is  preserved  from 
the  paroxysms  of  a  blind  grief  which, 
when  they  include  contact,  tend  to  snap 
the  last  thread  of  vitality,  or,  still  more 
important,  from  the  embalmer's  igno- 
rant knife,  which  slays  unnumbered 
thousands — when  the  body  is  preserved 
from  both  tliese  dangers  by  a  previ- 
ous isolation,  great  possibilities  are  in 
store. 

A  forty-days'  fast  in  the  wilderness 
was  the  experience  of  one  such  soul, 
after  which  he  was  able  to  say  of  his 
bodily  life.  No  man  taketh  it  from  me, 
but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself.  I  have 
power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power 
to  take  it  again. 

For  his  bodily  life  was  restored  to  him, 
and  death  of  the  body  had  no  more 
terrors  to  the  man  who  had  attained 
superhuman  powers. 

The  fourth  and  last  case,  that  where 


102  BEYOND, 

the  death  of  the  body  follows  that  of 
the  soul,  will  not  be  enlarged  on. 

There  are  such  cases,  but  such  can 
receive  no  lessons  from  a  printed  page. 
The  language  of  events  alone  can  reach 
them,  and  even  when  the  soul  is  not 
dead,  but  rather  entombed  in  the  body, 
and  rendered  torpid  for  want  of  air  to 
breathe,  the  effect  is  the  same,  so  far  as 
reaching  them  is  concerned  ;  the  death 
of  tlie  body  weakens  such  imprisoned 
spirits,only  to  plunge  them  into  an  untold 
agony  of  despair  as  they  discover  that 
life,  with  all  its  opportunities,  has  been 
worse  than  wasted,  and  a  bare  existence 
alone  remains,  minus  friends,  minus 
hope,  minus  resource  of  any  kind  even 
to  conceal  the  abject  poverty  which  is 
seen  to  be  the  direct  result  of  wilful  and 
persistent  wrongdoing  all  the  way  to 
the  bitter  end. 

If  we  can  suppose  that  such  a  soul,  at 
this  twelfth  hour,  under  the  tremendous 


BEYOND,  103 

pressure  of  this  awakening,  should  sud- 
denl}^  resolve  to  accept  the  situation, 
and  to  brace  every  nerve  to  endure  the 
horrors  of  the  event  without  complaint, 
while  it  would  not  be  possible  to  say 
when  there  would  be  any  change  for  the 
better  for  such  a  one,  the  reason  would 
be  because  time  is  not  to  such  a  soul  ; 
while  it  still  remains  true  that  mercy  is 
as  truly  an  attribute  of  infinite  power, 
as  justice  must  always  be. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  suppose  that 
such  a  soul  breaks  out  into  rage  at  the 
discovery  of  its  loss,  hurling  anathemas 
at  the  author  of  its  being,  it  will  thereby 
plunge  itself  into  darker  depths,  parting 
with  one  after  another  of  its  faculties, 
until  final  extinction  of  the  individuality 
closes  the  scene. 

I  have  now  shown  the  four  conditions 
which  our  dual  constitution  in  relation  to 
life  and  death  makes  possible.  Some 
enlarging  on  these  topics,  which  concern 


104  BEYOND. 

US  all,  may  not  be  unprofitable.  We  all 
enter  life  in  the  first  described  condition, 
with  body  and  soul  both  alive,  the  body 
visible  and  tangible,  the  soul  more  or 
less  so,  according  as  its  environments 
since  conception  have  favored  its 
growth. 

Comparatively  few  of  us  ever  reach 
the  second  condition  I  have  described,  in 
which  the  body  remains  alive  while  the 
soul  is  utterly  dead.  The  protests  of 
this,  which  is  called  the  immortal  part 
of  us,  because  the  death  of  the  body  in 
itself  does  not  impair  its  vigor,  usually 
prevent  so  great  a  calamity  from  occur- 
ring. 

Some  kind  of  a  compromise  is  entered 
into,  by  which  the  soul  is  allowed  a 
certain  amount  of  freedom,  on  condi- 
tion that  the  body  shall  remain  undis- 
turbed in  its  favorite  pleasures.  Some- 
times one  day  in  the  week  is  selected, 
in  which  the  soul  is  permitted  to  rule. 


BEYOND,  105 

Sometimes  a  single  department  of 
life's  activities  is  placed  under  its  charge, 
and  to  meet  the  man  on  the  favored 
day,  or  to  have  dealings  with  him  in 
this  favored  department,  gives  you  a 
very  exalted  idea  of  the  individual. 
Sometimes  in  his  business  relations  a 
man  will  be  found  conscientious  in  the 
extreme,  while  in  his  family  he  acts  the 
tyrant  and  the  brute.  Sometimes  his 
family  almost  worship  him,  while  thou- 
sands speak  his  name  with  detestation. 
In  either  case  the  body,  not  the  soul, 
the  outer  and  visible,  not  the  inner  in- 
visible self,  is  the  leading  factor  in  the 
man,  and  the  court  of  last  resort. 

The  man  is  still  in  slavery  to  the 
mortal;  he  has  no  knowledge  of  any 
life  except  the  earth-life ;  the  faith- 
knowledge  which  he  might  have,  were 
his  soul  given  its  freedom  and  per- 
mitted to  use  its  higher  powers,  is  shut 
out   by  the    disorder  of   his   condition, 


106  BEYOND. 

wherein  a  servant  in  rank,  the  body, 
rules  over  the  prince  entitled  to  the 
throne. 

This  is  the  prevailing  condition  of 
the  human  family  to-day,  the  difference 
between  most  people  in  this  respect  be- 
ing merely  one  of  degree,  some  giving 
the  prince  more,  and  some  less  of  free- 
dom. A  few  millions  at  most  have 
given  the  nominal  power  into  his  hands, 
retaining  the  real  for  bodily  uses.  To 
curry  favor  with  these,  tens  of  millions 
profess  to  have  done  the  same.  In  thou- 
sands only  is  the  soul  truly  regnant, 
and  these  are  widely  scattered,  and 
more  or  less  hidden,  lest  they  be  driven 
out  of  life. 


BEYOND.  107 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

When  I  say  that  I  have  been  out- 
side and  have  returned,  I  speak  the 
truth,  and  yet  my  words  seem  to  ex- 
press an  untruth.  It  is  because,  as  I 
have  said  before,  that  other  kind  of 
existence  is  so  different  from  this  that 
it  uses  a  different  language  to  express 
even  a  simple  idea,  a  language  which 
the  kind  we  know  as  figurative  most 
nearly  resembles,  although  that  is  far 
enough  from  being  the  same.  I  should 
therefore  use  figurative  language  to  em- 
body what  I  have  to  say  in  regard  to 
that  other  life,  if  literary  considerations 
were  alone  to  be  regarded ;  but  my  aim 
is  to  benefit,  and  I  decline  to  use  a  form 
of  speech  which  has  been  so  often  sold 
as  merchandise   that   many   people   no 


108  BEYOND, 

longer  believe  there  is  any  truth  at- 
tached to  it.  I  use  instead  the  plain, 
everyday  speech,  and  say  without  qual- 
ification that  I  have  been  away,  that  I 
am  acquainted  with  the  conditions  that 
follow  after  death,  that  I  lean  on  no 
man's  theories,  not  even  on  those  which 
I  might  make,  if  I  were  given  to  theo- 
rizing, which  I  am  not.  No,  I  rest  on 
facts,  plain,  cold  facts,  which  are  none 
the  less  so  because  they  are  registered 
in  the  mind  of  one  man  instead  of  many ; 
facts  of  consciousness  not  to  be  gainsaid, 
although,  in  order  to  express  them  so  as 
to  make  them  most  useful  here,  it  is 
necessary  to  translate  them  into  a  lan- 
guage so  far  from  the  original,  that  only 
those  who  keep  the  fact  of  the  transla- 
tion in  mind  can  hope  to  receive  the 
truth  in  something  like  its  purity. 

I  am  well  aware  that  I  can  scarcely 
hope  to  convince  my  reader  that  it  could 
be  possible  under  any  circumstances  for 


BEYOND.  109 

one  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  the  dead, 
to  take  on  the  powers  and  conditions 
belonging  to  that  realm,  to  become  a 
component  J3art  of  that  world  of  mystery 
to  the  extent  of  dismissing  all  care  in 
regard  to  the  possibility  of  return,  and 
even  to  transmit  such  a  thought-mes- 
sage as  this.  The  responsibility  for  my 
being  out  of  place  rests  upon  you  all ;  I 
was  compelled  to  undergo  the  pain  of 
the  passage  at  your  Avill ;  and  now  that 
you  repent  and  ask  me  to  return,  I  will 
take  my  time  and  think  about  it.  I  am 
well  housed  in  a  good  body  on  this  side. 
I  do  not  know  that  I  would  go  back  if  I 
could. 

That,  after  all  this,  and  after  a  suc- 
cession of  spiritual  events  which,  meas- 
ured by  their  effect  on  one's  conscious- 
ness, should  correspond  to  a  period  of 
centuries  on  earth,  one  should  actually 
make  his  way  back  and  take  up  again 
the  broken  threads  of  his  earthly  life, 


110  BEYOND. 

and  weave  them  into  something  resem- 
bling an  orderly  design  once  more, — to 
convince  my  readers  of  the  possibility 
of  this  is  so  nearly  impossible  that  I 
shall  not  seriously  attempt  it,  although 
it  is  true. 

It  will  be  said  that  even  though  I 
suppose  that  this  is  actually  true  of  my- 
self, it  does  not  follow  that  I  am  not 
suffering  from  an  hallucination. 

It  will  be  argued  very  naturally  that 
in  so  far  as  I  am  now  a  tangible,  actual 
human  being,  just  so  far  is  it  impossible 
that  I  should  ever  have  been  actually 
dead ;  and  as  to  becoming  habituated  to 
the  kind  of  life  which  may  remain  after 
the  body  loses  its  animation,  for  any  one 
now  living  to  make  such  a  claim  is  the 
height  of  absurdity. 

Any  one  who  shall  take  this  stand  will 
need  to  be  reminded  that  bodily  con- 
sciousness is  one  thing,  and  soul-con- 
sciousness another,  and  that  there  may 


BEYOND,  111 

be  spiritual  existence  beyond  that. 
Comparatively  few  mortals  have  not  at 
some  time  in  their  lives  awakened  at 
least  momentarily  to  soul-consciousness, 
and  can  remember,  if  they  care  to  try, 
how  suddenly  and  completely  the  bodily 
consciousness  retired  into  the  back- 
ground at  its  coming. 

Thousands  can  testify  that  this  soul- 
consciousness  in  them  so  dominates  that 
of  the  body  as  to  render  bodily  pains 
powerless  to  disturb  the  regnant  soul. 

These  may  be  able  to  understand  that 
in  the  world  toward  which  they  hasten, 
another  advance  will  become  possible, 
wherein  the  soul-consciousness  shall  be- 
come subordinate  to  the  higher  life  of 
the  spirit. 

To  make  this  a  little  clearer  let  me 
say  that  what  you  are  now  conscious  of 
as  your  soul,  the  sensitive  inner  nature, 
that  feels  a  slight  as  though  it  were  a 
blow,  that  spurs  the  organism  to  years 


112  BEYOND. 

of  anxious  toil  in  the  hope  of  gaining 
independence,  that  scorns  to  beg,  yet  in 
the  hour  of  danger  sometimes  feels  to 
pray — this  inner  self  is  to  be  your  body 
when  death  shall  come  to  break  the  tie 
that  holds  you  captive  in  the  dust. 
Every  consideration  to  which  your  soul 
is  now  sensitive  shall  become,  as  it  were, 
the  laws  of  nature  then.  You  will  sud- 
denly discover  that  ill-will,  for  instance, 
is  a  current  actually  tangible,  as  much 
so  as  an  electric  current  was  to  your 
physical  body.  You  will  learn  experi- 
mentally that  kindliness  of  spirit,  good- 
will, and  gratitude  are  equally  tangible 
to  your  new  and  finer  senses.  You  will 
perceive  that  a  generous  spirit  diffuses 
light,  and  a  selfish  one  dwells  in  his  own 
darkness,  and  this  kind  of  light  and 
darkness  you  will  be  astonished  to  dis- 
cover has  taken  the  place  of  what  you 
formerly  knew  by  those  names.  You 
will    soon    perceive   that  a   deceiving 


BEYOND.  113 

spirit  knows  how  to  wear  a  false  light 
as  he  pretends  to  a  genuine  interest  in 
your  welfare,  and  that  a  truly  friendly 
one  will  sometimes  hide  his  light,  if 
thereby  he  can  obtain  advantage  for 
your  benefit. 

If  your  life  has  been  little  more  than 
a  revolution  around  yourself,  measuring 
everything  by  its  relation  to  your  per- 
sonal advantage  as  you  saw  it,  you  will 
be  surprised  to  find  how  small  and  dark 
a  space  will  bound  your  being ;  and  it 
may  be  a  long  time  before  you  cease  to 
dwell  upon  the  memories  of  the  world 
left  behind,  or  cease  to  hope  that  in 
some  way  you  can  return  to  make  a 
better  use  of  its  opportunities.  And 
when  you  shall  fairly  come  to  under- 
stand that  you  have  been  living  in  the 
generous  air  and  sunshine  of  the  spirit 
of  God,  and  that,  instead  of  seeking  to 
imitate  Him  by  making  your  life  a  bless- 
ing to  those  less  favored  than  yourself, 


114  BEYOND, 

you  have  employed  your  brief  span  in 
the  effort  to  appropriate  to  your  private 
use  everything  that  could  be  lawfully 
seized  on,  you  will  wonder  why  the  cer- 
tainty that  earth-life  is  limited  had  not 
impressed  you  more  ;  and  when  you 
perceive,  through  the  soul-consciousness 
which  has  taken  the  place  of  the  bodily, 
that  you  have  no  data  whatever  upon 
which  to  base  even  a  surmise  as  to  how 
long  your  new  kind  of  life  is  to  continue, 
such  measureless  despair  may  fall  upon 
you  as  shall  even  make  tears  impos- 
sible. 


BEYOND,  115 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  anywhere  along 
your  life -journey  you  have  scattered 
any  seeds  of  kindness,  they  will  every 
one  of  them  bear  fruit  in  the  Beyond. 

From  the  moment  when  you  perceive 
and  acknowledge  to  yourself  that  you 
are  not  in  every  way  fitted  to  enter  the 
courts  of  heaven  and  become  associated 
with  those  to  whom  selfish  thoughts 
have  become  simply  memories,  you  are 
likely  to  have  experiences  tending  to 
refine  and  purify  your  nature.  No 
longer  active  in  the  outward,  you  must 
bear  what  influences  come  upon  you  from 
without  as  best  you  may.  An  infant  in 
the  cradle  is  not  more  helpless  than  the 
great  majority  of  those  who  enter  the 
Beyond ;  and  the  invisible  nurse    that 


116  BEYOND. 

may  have  you  in  charge  will  not  ask 
you  what  kind  of  medicine  is  most 
agreeable,  but  will  administer  what  is 
best  for  you. 

Picture  to  your  mind,  if  possible, 
what  it  would  be  like  to  lie  physically 
helpless,  with  your  outward  conscious- 
ness telling  you  that  you  no  longer  ap- 
pear as  a  man,  or  as  a  woman,  but  otily 
as  an  infant  to  any  eyes  able  to  see  you, 
while  at  the  same  time  your  mental 
vision  is  perfectly  clear  and  takes  in  all 
your  past  life  in  every  aspect  of  its  re- 
lation to  other  lives,  and  especially  in 
its  relations  to  the  great  all-pervading 
life  which  seems  now  to  be  somehow 
lost  out  of  all  possible  reach. 

Suppose  that  while  those  reactions 
called  pain  and  pleasure  are  more  vitally 
potent  than  ever,  because  of  a  vastly 
heightened  sensitiveness,  mental  as  well 
as  physical  exertion  has  become  im- 
possible, a  succession  of  states  of  con- 


BEYOND.  117 

* 

sciousness  taking  their  place  ;  and  then 
suppose  a  master  hand,  with  all  the  re- 
sources of  mesmerism  at  his  command, 
should  begin  playing  upon  your  or- 
ganism, proving  to  you  by  every  touch 
that  not  a  line  of  all  your  past  history 
but  is  an  open  book  to  him,  and  his  only 
aim  is  to  bring  you  to  a  willingness  to 
confess  your  weaknesses  and  follies,  your 
neglect  of  duties,  as  well  as  your  open 
transgressions  —  one  thing  at  least 
would  surely  result  :  you  would  dis- 
cover, and  never  forget,  that  spiritual 
things  are  not  less,  but  immensely  more 
real  than  any  physical  entities  with 
which  you  ever  came  in  contact. 

It  is  such  a  great  mistake  to  suppose 
that  because  you  have  nothing  in  your 
experience  corresponding  to  such  a  con- 
dition as  that  which  I  have  just  de- 
scribed, therefore  you  never  will  have. 

What  kind  of  reasoning  can  be 
weaker  than  this  ?     Have  you  not  two 


118  BEYOND. 

kinds  of  consciousness,  one  of  the  world 
and  all  it  contains,  and  one  of  personal 
existence  in  its  various  relations  ?  Do 
you  not  perceive  that  your  body,  vitally 
active  as  it  is,  and  swayed  by  every 
thought  you  send  out,  belongs  properly 
to  the  first  of  these  fields  of  conscious- 
ness, Avhile  that  which  makes  up  your 
character — your  preferences,  your  pre- 
dilections, your  faults,  your  foibles, 
your  beliefs,  and  your  prejudices — be- 
longs to  the  second? 

Can  you  not  see  that  a  suspension  of 
the  outward  consciousness,  in  other 
words,  a  suspension  of  your  power  to 
sense  the  material  world  through  your 
material  senses,  has  no  necessary  con- 
nection with  any  suspension  of  your 
inner  consciousness  by  which  you  might 
be  able  to  say,  I  cannot  move ;  I  cannot 
see,  hear,  or  feel  anything,  but  I  am 
still  a  white  man,  ready  to  swear  by  the 
flag  and   by   my  right  to  my  personal 


BEYOND,  119 

liberty,  and  if  any  one  takes  the  trouble 
to  hunt  me  oat  he  will  find  me  the 
same  man  I  always  was? 

Hundreds  of  thousands  thus  lie  in 
their  graves,  thankful  if  they  know  its 
location,  and  waiting  as  only  the  dead 
can  for  the  time  of  their  deliverance. 


120  BEYOND. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

Accept  another  glimpse  of  the  Be- 
yond. One  of  the  most  distinctive 
characteristics  of  this  country  or  state 
of  being  is  activity  of  mind.  Let  me 
explain  why  I  say  country  or  state  of 
being.  It  is  either  the  one  or  the  other 
to  the  consciousness  according  to  the 
point  of  view.  Looked  at  externally, 
it  is  seen  to  be  a  new  environment,  a 
different  kind  of  life ;  but  when  its  at- 
mosphere becomes  yours,  the  effect  upon 
your  mental  organism  will  be  so  great 
that  you  will  rightly  regard  it  as  a  state 
of  being  to  which  earth-life  bears  the 
relation  of  a  pre-natal  one.  This  com- 
parison, however,  has  one  defect,  for 
while  we  of  the  earth  have  no  conscious 
memory  of  our  pre-natal  life,  they   of 


BEYOND.  121 

the  Beyond  recall  every  leading  event 
of  earth-life  as  clearly  as  though  no  time 
had  intervened. 

The  change  of  state  brings  on  the 
mental  activity  spoken  of,  the  effect  of 
which  on  the  material  side  manifests  as 
heat  or  magnetism,  or  both. 

The  lifting  off  of  the  weight  of  dead 
matter  causes  a  feeling  of  buoyancy,  and 
the  vibrations  of  the  particles  of  the 
gaseous  body  may  be  so  great  that  it 
will  seem  to  expand  until  one  seems 
everywhere  present  over  a  vast  territory 
in  the  same  way  that  we  are  now  pres- 
ent in  all  parts  of  our  physical  bodies. 

The  first  event  of  prime  importance 
to  you  will  be  the  demonstrating  and 
establishing  of  your  spiritual  rank. 
Just  where  do  you  belong?  In  the 
society  of  what  people,  or  what  class  of 
people,  are  you  content  ?  Does  any  ac- 
cusation lie  against  you  ?  If  so,  what 
have  you  to  say  in  regard  to  it? 


122  BEYOND, 

Are  there  any  special  credits  that  you 
claim  which  seem  never  to  have  been 
acknowledged  ?  Is  there  anything  you 
wish  to  confess?  To  what  conceal- 
ment do  you  claim  a  right  ? 

The  answering  of  these  questions  may 
be  a  very  simple  matter,  or  may  involve 
the  welfare  of  nations.  While  the 
friends  left  behind  will  contribute  their 
quota  of  evidence,  those  with  whom  you 
have  been  associated  who  have  preceded 
you  to  the  unknown  country  will  be  the 
most  actively  interested  in  your  case. 
You  will  find  some  waiting  for  your 
testimony  on  some  point  involving  their 
own  status,  and  when  you  come  to  speak 
of  the  matter  you  may  have  to  struggle 
against  a  tumult  of  voices  before  you 
succeed  in  testifying.  Where  questions 
of  fact  are  involved,  of  sufficient  im- 
portance to  justify  it,  most  wonderful 
agencies  can  be  set  in  motion  to  deter- 


BEYOND.  123 

mine  them  correctly  in  the  region  of  the 
Beyond. 

That  precise  point  in  the  ether  where 
the  event  occurred,  and  wliich  has  long 
since  been  left  behind  by  the  passage  of 
the  solar  system  through  space,  can  be 
visited  and  made  to  yield  up  its  record 
as  by  kinetograph ;  or  the  surroundings 
may  be  reproduced  as  on  a  stage,  and 
the  one  who  persists  in  falsifying  is  sud- 
denly placed  there  and  told  to  act  his 
part  again  according  to  his  own  story. 
He  will  find  it  very  difficult  to  play  a 
false  part  in  the  presence  of  those  who 
know  the  truth. 

It  may  be  noted  that  this  picture  of  a 
soul  on  trial  is  quite  different  from  that 
given  before,  where  it  is  held  as  the 
prisoner  of  death;  but  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  bear  in  mind  that  events  may 
succeed  each  other  even  in  a  country 
where  time  is  not,  and  that  such  succes- 
sion marks  the  stages  of  one's  growth. 


124  BEYOND. 

If  any  of  your  faculties  are  in  a  dull 
or  torpid  state  because  the  circumstances 
of  your  life  have  been  such  that  they 
never  have  been  given  a  field  of  action, 
the  invisible  actors  of  the  Beyond  who 
may  have  you  in  charge  will  know  how 
to  awaken,  stimulate,  and  call  these 
faculties  into  an  active  state  before  the 
final  decision  is  rendered,  to  the  end 
that  no  injustice  may  be  done  you  on 
their  account.  Should  the  verdict  of 
the  lower  court  be  such  that  you  are  not 
willing  to  abide  by  it,  you  may  take  an 
appeal  to  a  higher  court. 

At  the  last  you  may  even  appeal  from 
the  judgment  of  angels  altogether,  and 
demand  a  trial  by  the  great  Spirit  of  the 
universe,  but  you  will  not  do  this  reck- 
lessly when  you  know  that  it  involves  a 
trial  by  ordeal,  or  a  contest  of  sheer  will- 
power, sustained  by  conscious  innocence 
alone,  with  planetary  forces. 

Not  brief  nor  trifling  is  a  contest  such 


BEYOND.  126 

as  this ;  not  once  in  a  thousand  years 
does  such  a  thing  occur ;  but  the  fact 
that  the  way  to  it  is  always  open  in  the 
Beyond  proves  with  what  infinite  tender- 
ness the  individual  is  guarded  against 
injustice. 

But  it  is  impossible  that  I  should 
know  of  what  I  am  speaking,  some 
reader  says.  I  grant  you  that  it  seems 
so,  but  would  discussion  settle  it  ?  Is 
it  not  time  the  door  was  opened  ?  Is 
there  no  need  ? 


126  BEYOND. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

An  illustration  of  the  difficulty  of 
generalizing  when  speaking  of  matters 
on  the  spirit-side  just  now  occurs  to  me. 

Suppose  that  you  as  a  mortal  were 
permitted  to  witness  a  combat  between 
a  soul  on  its  way  upward  and  a  foul 
spirit  seeking  to  gain  control.  The 
spirit  may  be  able  to  take  on  any  form 
it  pleases,  and  approaches  in  the  guise 
of  a  friend.  But  the  soul  receives  a 
warning  touch  and  speaks  out  sharply : 
"  Stand  ;  keep  your  distance.  Who  are 
you  ?  and  what  do  you  want  ?  "  With 
every  smooth  and  crafty  method  of  tone 
and  word  the  spirit  seeks  to  convince 
that  he  is  what  he  claims  to  be,  a  friend, 
and  entitled  to  approach.  The  soul, 
with  its  senses  sharpened  by  fear,  uses 


BEYOND.  127 

every  effort  to  discern  the  character  of 
the  stranger,  weighs  and  analyzes  in- 
stantly every  expression  of  the  wily  foe, 
and  before  the  answer  is  completed, 
decides  positively  and  prepares  to  strike. 
The  spirit  perceives  the  motion  and 
shifts  his  footing  in  time  to  escape  the 
blow — a  thought-impulse,  weighted  to 
kill.  Does  the  spirit  respond  in  anger  ? 
Oh,  no  ;  his  object  is  not  to  injure, 
but  to  gain  control,  so  he  remonstrates, 
with  pretended  grief,  that  one  whom  he 
loves  should  so  mistake  him.  But  the 
soul  is  not  to  be  deceived,  and  gathers  up 
its  strength  for  another  blow.  The  spirit 
pours  out  a  perfect  stream  of  flattering 
words,  intended  to  lull  his  intended  vic- 
tim into  a  momentary  lack  of  vigilance, 
and  ventures  a  little  nearer,  hoping  to 
touch  the  aura  and  disappear  from  view, 
only  to  become  manifest  as  an  invisible 
power  within  the  soul,  an  active  agent 
in   undermining   its   powers   until   the 


128  BEYOND, 

opportunity  shall  present  to  seize  the 
very  throne  itself  and  revel  in  the 
possessions  of  its  victim. 

But  the  soul  is  cautious,  and  in  virtue 
strong,  and  so,  conscious  of  invisible 
protection,  suddenly  fixes  the  demon 
with  his  eye,  and  before  he  can  escape 
launches  at  him  a  bolt  that  leaves  him 
helpless  and  writhing,  dead  as  a  spirit  can 
be.  "  I  killed  him,"  says  the  exulting 
soul,  as  it  passes  on  its  way. 

You  would  be  apt  to  say,  ''  He  did 
not  kill  him  at  all ;  he  only  disabled  him." 

Now,  while  it  is  true  that  what  I  have 
described  corresponds  in  appearance  to 
what  we  should  here  call  disablement 
merely,  its  full  meaning  cannot  be  under- 
stood without  entering  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  spirit  who  was  struck  down. 

To  such  a  one  activity,  or  the  ability 
to  act,  constitutes  life ;  inactivity,  or 
the  inability  to  act,  constitutes  death, 
not  death  as  we  know  it,  but  a  living 


BEYOND.  129 

death,  in  which  the  fierce  vibrations  of 
a  life  that  knows  no  end,  being  con- 
fined as  though  by  a  broken  wheel  in 
its  carriage, — being  confined,  I  say,  to 
the  gaseous  envelope,  the  propulsion  of 
which  has  absorbed  half  its  fire,  soon 
heats  the  envelope  to  a  torturing  degree. 
Illustrating  in  another  way,  the  evil 
spirit,  being  disabled  from  continuing 
his  customary  activity,  is  forced  to  re- 
flect, to  look  back  over  his  course,  and 
face  the  evils  he  has  done.  Horrors 
take  hold  of  him.  The  most  poignant 
dread  of  being  overtaken  by  those 
whom  he  has  despoiled  of  all  that  made 
life  dear,  until  in  despair  they  have 
committed  suicide,  and  started  out  to 
find  their  tormentor,  takes  hold  of  the 
miserable  wreck,  who  has  not  even  the 
consolation  of  looking  forward  to  some 
certain  end  to  his  sufferings,  because 
neither  time  nor  the  last  sleep  are 
known  in  the  region  of  the  dead. 
9 


130  BEYOND. 

Is  this  experience,  do  you  think,  any- 
less  to  be  dreaded  by  a  selfish  spirit 
than  is  death  by  a  mortal  who  is  con- 
sciously not  ready?  It  is  therefore 
properly  called  death  in  the  language 
of  the  spirit,  made  up,  as  that  language 
is,  of  ideas  only. 

But  in  calling  it  death  on  the  earth- 
plane  we  are  using  a  word  that  has  a 
much  different  meaning  here. 

When  we  say,  '^  The  man  is  dead,"  a 
funeral,  or  at  least  a  burial  is  suggest- 
ed.    Not  so  there. 

In  this  we  have  an  example  of  the 
difficulty  of  conveying  information  in 
regard  to  the  conditions  of  the  Beyond, 
without  using  words  that  are  liable  to 
be  misunderstood. 

Only  those  who  have  attained  to  the 
ability  to  converse  in  the  light,  eye  to 
eye,  without  words,  are  entirely  free 
from  these  obstructions  to  mental  in- 
tercourse. 


BEYOND.  131 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Astronomy  teaches  us  that  our 
earth,  together  with  the  other  members 
of  the  solar  system,  is  traveling 
through  space,  at  the  rate  of  eight  miles 
per  second,  around  a  distant  center,  in 
an  orbit  requiring  many  thousands  of 
years  to  complete. 

We  learn  from  this  that  we  are  con- 
stantly changing  our  place  in  the 
universe,  and  are  entering  new  etherean 
fields,  not  only  every  year,  but  every 
day  and  hour.  Since  we  are  uncon- 
scious of  this  motion,  it  may  seem  to 
have  no  vital  relation  to  us,  yet,  by  a 
knowledge  of  the  fact,  we  may  gain  an 
insight  into  the  wonderful  resources  of 
this  great  machine  for  recording  events. 

Every  thought  and  feeling  of  which 


132  BEYOND. 

we  are  conscious  makes  its  mark,  not 
only  upon  our  bodies,  both  the  outer 
and  the  inner,  but  also  upon  the  ether 
through  which  we  are  passing.  I  am  al- 
luding not  to  the  words  in  which  we 
clothe  or  perhaps  conceal  our  thoughts 
or  feelings  when  communicating  with 
one  another,  but  to  the  thought-current 
itself  at  the  point  of  origin. 

This  would  be  the  same  in  the  minds 
of  all  men  of  equal  intelligence,  with- 
out regard  to  nationality  ;  and  those 
beings  who  are  able  to  read  the  marks 
left  by  these  currents  would  find  them 
written  in  unmistakable  characters, 
and  of  a  size  proportionate  to  our  rate 
of  travel,  on  the  fair  ethereal  page. 

In  one  respect  we  are  at  an  enormous 
disadvantage  in  our  relations,  conscious 
or  unconscious,  with  the  denizens  of  the 
Beyond. 

Our  thought-motions  compared  with 
theirs  are  like  an  ox-team  to  a  locomo- 


BEYOND.  133 

tive.  It  is  a  fact,  and  there  is  no  use  in 
quarreling  with  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
through  our  association  with  matter  we 
are  able,  witliout  permanent  injury,  to 
bear  oppressions  of  the  spirit  which 
would  be  death  itself  to  them ;  and 
those  among  them  who  would  take  de- 
light in  insulting  us  are  deterred  from 
doing  so  by  our  insensibility  to  the 
stinging  thought-current.  We  our- 
selves would  not  insult  a  post  for  being 
one. 

These  oppressions  of  spirit,  or  depres- 
sions, as  we  blindly  call  them,  are  a  part 
of  the  system  by  and  through  which  we 
are  made  to  manifest  what  manner  of 
person  we  are  ;  and  our  blindness  as  to 
the  real  meaning  of  the  life  we  have 
come  into  possession  of,  our  persistent 
mistaking  it  for  an  end,  instead  of  a 
means  to  an  end,  brings  it  to  pass  that 
the  tests  we  undergo  as  to  our  fitness 
for   this   or   that  position   in   the   real 


134  BEYOND. 

though  hidden  life  that  awaits  us  all, 
are  real  and  genuine  tests,  which  they 
could  not  be,  to  their  full  extent,  if  we 
clearly  understood  at  the  time  just  what 
was  being  done.  Every  thoughtful 
man  and  woman  looking  back  over  life 
can  discern  how  this  or  that  decision 
has  been  a  turning-point  leading  on  to 
unexpected  success  or  paving  the  way 
to  disaster  or  defeat.  When  the  test  is 
complete,  some  inkling  of  its  meaning 
often  dawns  upon  us,  and  we  resolve  to 
be  on  guard  next  time,  and  then  per- 
haps we  start  off  on  some  rainbow  chase, 
only  to  discover  that  we  are  the  prey  of 
delusion  once  more.  Then,  perhaps,  we 
get  angry  and  curse  the  whole  machine 
as  the  product  of  some  stupid  blunder- 
er, thereby  avoiding  the  confession  of 
any  mental  obliquity  on  our  own  part. 

Not  all  of  the  delusions  of  mortality 
are  of  a  kind  that  lead  to  such  a  result. 
Some  have  been  imposed  upon  us  by 


BEYOND.  135 

our  risen  brothers  of  the  other  sphere, 
and  have  held  sway  over  our  minds,  as 
they  did  over  our  fathers'  minds,  and 
over  their  fathers'  before  them,  none  of 
us  living  long  enough  on  the  mortal 
side,  or  obtaining  sufficiently  clear  in- 
dependent light,  to  enable  us  to  become 
free.  The  shaking  off  of  the  fetters  of 
this  mental  bondage  is  a  special  char- 
acteristic of  our  own  day ;  and  those  who 
have  listened  to  the  torrents  of  elo- 
quence poured  from  the  lips  of  the  young 
mediums  upon  this  subject,  know  that 
this  work,  the  necessity  for  which,  as  I 
have  indicated,  is  largely  due  to  other- 
world  intelligences,  is  now  being  for- 
warded from  the  same  quarter  with 
tremendous  power.  Verily,  there  must 
have  been  a  revolution  in  the  heavens, 
or  this  would  not  be.  And  such,  in- 
deed, is  the  case.  The  tremendous 
power  of  an  organized  hierarchy  under 
the   controlling    influence   of   a  single 


136  BEYOND. 

mind  so  prominently  in  evidence  here, 
is  without  a  counterpart  on  the  other 
side  to-day,  although  the  sins  against  hu- 
manity which  have  been  charged  against 
the  priesthood  of  past  ages  should  more 
properly  be  laid  at  the  door  of  their  in- 
visible inspirers,  then  in  the  height  of 
that  power  which  is  no  longer  theirs. 
To-day  the  enemies  of  racial  progress 
are  to  be  sought  for  on  earth,  where  the 
intoxicating  dreams  of  power  without 
responsibility  have  found  lodgment  and 
worked  their  corrupting  influence  in  the 
minds  of  not  a  few  of  our  brothers,  who 
seem  to  forget  that  they  are  still  mem- 
bers of  the  race  they  are  seeking  to 
enslave,  and  that  their  responsibility  for 
misusing  the  power  entrusted  to  them 
will  be  accounted  all  the  greater  in  con- 
sequence. 


BEYOND.  137 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

The  range  of  subjects  coming  within 
the  scope  of  my  title  is  so  great  that  I 
cannot  undertake  an  exhaustive  treat- 
ment of  any  within  reasonable  limits, 
but  I  hope  to  supply  a  few  keys  by 
the  use  of  which  reverent  minds  of  any 
and  every  school  of  thought  may  be 
able  to  enter  upon  successful  explora- 
tions. 

The  amount  of  evidence  necessary  to 
convince  a  sincere  inquirer  that  this 
earth-life,  important  as  it  is,  is  but  the 
threshold  of  existence,  is  not  very  great, 
but  it  must  needs  be  adapted  to  the 
individual  mind. 

To  obtain  this  evidence  is  worth  more 
to  any  man  or  woman  than  any  other 
purely  mental  acquirement  can  be. 


138  BEYOND. 

For  it  is  a  mental  acquisition,  the 
possession  of  which  is  related  to,  and 
has  a  natural  influence  over,  every  other 
we  can  call  our  own.  Yet  it  has  not,  in 
itself,  any  transforming  effect  upon  the 
life  and  character. 

When  such  a  result  follows,  other  in- 
fluences share  in  the  work.  He  who 
has  lost  friends  that  were  a  part  of  his 
life,  the  mother  whose  children  have 
fainted  away  into  the  world  of  mystery, 
the  philosopher  who  has  given  the 
strength  of  his  years  to  the  search  for 
truth,  are  all  profoundly  affected  by  the 
discovery ;  while  those  in  whom  the  af- 
fections are  less  strongly  developed,  or 
whose  mental  powers  give  them  no  ade- 
quate perception  of  the  profound  and 
far-reaching  relations  of  this  great  truth, 
may  hold  it  as  lightly  as  they  do  their 
dreams,  and  receive  from  it  no  more 
benefit  than  they  do  from  them. 

Whoever  is   capable    of   analyzing  a 


BEYOND.  139 

thought  or  the  expression  of  a  thoug/it, 
can  find  evidence  of  the  world  beyond 
strewn  along  his  path  on  every  hand. 

All  figurative  expressions  are  merely 
unconscious  devices  to  give  to  thought 
somewhat  of  the  objective  reality  it  pos- 
sesses to  dwellers  in  the  Beyond.  For 
instance : 

"  There  are  names  which  carry  with 
them  something  of  a  charm.  We  have 
but  to  say  '  Athens,'  and  all  the  great 
deeds  of  antiquity  break  upon  our 
hearts  like  a  sudden  gleam  of  sunshine ; 
'  Florence,'  and  the  magnificence  and 
passionate  agitation  of  Italy's  prime 
send  forth  their  fragrance  towards  us 
like  blossom-laden  boughs,  from  whose 
dusky  shadows  we  catch  whispers  of  the 
beautiful  tongue." 

Is  it  doubted  that  the  Athens  of 
which  the  author  speaks  will  be  found 
embodied  in  forms  real  and  tangible  in 
that  other  world  which  takes  to  itself 


140  BEYOND. 

all  that  attains  to  immortality  in  this 
one  ? 

Why  do  authors  speak  of  a  cold  greet- 
ing, of  walls  of  reserve,  rivers  of  kind- 
ness, or  the  sunshine  of  love  ? 

They  may  not  be  able  fully  to  ex- 
plain, but  expressions  like  these  point 
to  features  of  the  landscape  in  that 
world  where  the  inner  becomes  the 
outer  and  takes  on  those  garments  of 
reality  which  belong  to  it  by  right. 

The  things  which  are  seen  are  tem- 
poral, but  the  things  wliich  are  unseen 
are  eternal,  and  when  we  have  broken 
connection  with  our  temporal  bodies,  or 
attained  a  true  and  perfect  control  over 
them,  we  may  enter  into  this  knowl- 
edge, to  find  it  truly  a  heavenly  inher- 
itance. 

But  it  is  not  alone  through  figurative 
and  poetic  language  that  we  may  dis- 
cover evidence  of  the  existence  of  an 
immaterial  world. 


BEYOND.  141 

The  broad  fields  of  philosophy  and 
literary  criticism  receive  their  light, 
their  water,  and  their  air,  outside  the 
world  of  sense  almost  entirely.  Scarce 
anything  in  these  domains  has  any 
causative  relation  with  the  world  of 
matter. 

For  instance,  take  this  passage  from 
one  of  the  magazines : 

"  But  what  does  the  work  of  higher 
criticism  really  mean  ?  It  means, 
briefly,  as  applied  to  the  Old  Testament, 
the  revision  of  certain  traditions  con- 
cerning the  structure,  the  date,  the  au- 
thorship of  the  books — traditions  which 
had  their  origin  in  the  fanciful  and  un- 
critical circles  of  Judaism  just  before,  or 
soon  after,  the  Christian  era."  * 

A  careful  analysis  of  the  meaning  of 
this  will  show  that  it  begins  and  ends 
in  the  domain  of  abstract  thought.     To 

*  The  Arena,  January,  1894,  *'  The  Higher 
Criticism." 


142  BEYOND, 

use  a  figurative  expression,  it  does  not 
touch  the  ground  anywhere.  If  our 
bodies  and  their  needs,  if  the  earth  and 
its  products  which  minister  to  those 
needs,  if,  in  brief,  the  material  universe 
really  comprised  the  all  that  is,  such  a 
thought  as  is  contained  in  the  passage 
quoted  could  never  have  come  into 
being.  For  it  has  no  practical  relation 
to  things  as  such. 

Yet  there  is  nothing  especially  ob- 
scure about  it.  It  was  written  for  men 
and  women  of  ordinary  intelligence, 
who  are  supposed  to  take  an  interest 
not  merely  in  sacred  truths,  which, 
indeed,  are  not  dealt  with  in  the  article 
from  which  I  quote,  but  the  structural 
forms  containing  those  truths. 

All  of  which,  rightly  interpreted, 
points  to  another  phase  of  existence, 
which  is  either  near  to  or  far  from  us 
according  to  the  stage  of  our  develop- 
ment, a  phase  which  may  become  meas- 


BEYOND.  143 

urably  real  to  us  even  before  we  enter 
fully  upon  it,  and  which  has  the 
strongest  possible  claims  upon  our 
attention. 


144  BEYOND. 


CHAPTER  XXIL 

There  is  no  more  fruitful  source  of 
error  to  the  student  of  occult  philoso- 
phy than  the  assumption  which  he  con- 
tinually makes,  that  the  race  and  the 
individual  may  be  treated  as  one  when 
their  relations  to  a  higher  power  are 
being  considered. 

It  appears  that  the  study  of  the  laws 
of  chemistry  may  be.  partly  responsible 
for  this.  A  molecule  of  any  substance, 
having  in  itself  all  the  properties  of 
that  substance,  may  be  reasoned  upon 
and  regarded  as  though  it  were,  as  it  is, 
an  epitome  of  the  mass.  In  the  same 
way  it  is  assumed  that  man,  the  indi- 
vidual, is  an  epitome  of  the  race,  and 
that,  in  endeavoring  to  obtain  a  philo- 
sophical view  of  him,  we  may  pass  in 


BEYOND,  145 

review  before  the  mind  what  we  know 
of  the  race,  and  what  we  know  of  the 
individual  in  a  general  way,  without 
drawing  any  line  of  distinction  between 
what  is  true  of  the  one  and  what  is  true 
of  the  other. 

Now,  while  this  mental  process  may 
have  a  certain  value  when  both  are  con- 
sidered externally,  those  who  attempt 
to  solve  the  deeper  problems  of  the  race 
or  the  man,  by  means  of  it,  are  sure  to 
fall  into  error. 

It  is  not  borne  in  mind  that  our  race 
is  scarcely  conscious  of  itself  as  a  unit, 
and  if  it  were,  it  would  in  the  present 
state  of  knowledge  regard  itself  as  alone 
in  the  universe,  flying  through  space  on 
a  revolving  globe  with  enormous  veloc- 
ity, along  an  unknown  orbit.  There 
may  be  other  inhabited  worlds  peopled 
by  other  races  of  beings,  but  as  a  race 
we  do  not  know  this  to  be  true  ;  and 
only  a  dim  perception  of  tlie  survival  of 

lO 


146  BEYOND. 

a  few  of  its  own  members  that  have  lived 
their  little  lives  and  passed  away  since 
time  began,  relieves  the  sense  of  isola- 
tion with  which  the  race  looks  out  into 
the  surrounding  darkness. 

The  student  of  history  contemplates 
the  rise  and  fall  of  nations  and  traces 
the  causes  which  have  led  to  their  over- 
throw. He  observes  the  same  influ- 
ences at  work  to-day  as  in  the  olden 
time,  and  when  the  premonition  of  like 
disasters  comes  home  to  him,  he  is  ready 
to  exclaim,  "  There  is  no  hope  !  There 
is  no  God !  "  And  in  so  speaking  he 
gives  utterance  to  the  soul  of  our  race, 
which  is  still  groping  in  the  darkness 
for  light  and  a  place  of  rest. 

How  much  of  this  is  true  of  man  as 
an  individual?  Very  little,  compara- 
tively, as  we  shall  see.  In  the  first 
place,  as  individuals,  we  are  conscious 
of  companionship.  We  look  around  us 
and  out  over  the  world  and  see  great 


BEYOND,  147 

numbers  of  our  fellows  whose  life  and 
surroundings  are  comparable  with  our 
own.  Such  differences  as  we  perceive 
in  each  other  only  give  evidence  that 
our  fellow-beings  are  real,  not  simply 
reflections  of  ourselves ;  are  objective 
entities,  not  elusive  shadows.  And  by 
as  much  as  we  are  conscious  of  an  indi- 
viduality apart  from  that  of  our  race,  by 
so  much  may  we  hope  to  separate  the 
thread  of  our  destiny  from  the  tangled 
mass.  Examples  of  such  a  separation 
are  to  be  found  among  the  great  names 
of  the  earth ;  and  a  stud}-  of  their  lives 
will  teach  us  how  best  to  shape  our 
own.  It  will  also  teach  us  that  race- 
life  and  individual  life  are  not  neces- 
sarily the  same,  that  the  individual  may 
absorb  light  for  which  the  race  is  not 
yet  ready,  and  set  his  standards  of 
thought  and  action  far  beyond  what  is 
yet  possible  to  the  race  as  a  whole » 
If,  now,  we  form  our  conceptions  of 


148  BEYOND. 

the  character  of  the  power  overruling 
us,  by  an  exclusive  study  of  those  events 
which  affect  great  numbers,  we  are  li- 
able to  serious  error.  If  the  sound  of 
thunders  intended  for  the  ear  of  the 
race  be  concentrated  so  as  to  fall  upon 
our  individual  hearing,  they  will  cer- 
tainly deafen  us  completely. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  whose  nar- 
rower vision  sees  only  the  play  of  events 
as  they  affect  the  lives  of  individuals 
are  also  liable  to  error  in  forming  their 
estimate  of  the  character  of  the  over- 
ruling power. 

Here  tragedy  visible  and  invisible 
plays  its  part,  and  sometimes  injustice  in 
the  extreme  appears  to  triumph.  There 
is  no  possibility  of  avoiding  error  in  judg- 
ment from  this  point  of  view,  without 
constantly  bearing  in  mind  at  least  three 
things  :  first,  that  outward  disaster  is 
sometimes  an  inevitable  result  of  long- 
hidden  crime ;  second,  that  to  the  inno- 


BEYOND.  149 

cent,  death  is  a  release  from  prison, 
a  promotion  from  a  lower  to  a  higher 
sphere  of  action,  and  that  those  who  are 
able  to  look  beyond  the  instruments  used 
to  break  their  fetters,  to  the  kindness 
that  sets  them  free,  can  mount  on  the 
wings  of  delight  to  a  diviner  air ;  and 
third,  that  the  dwarfing  of  the  faculties 
of  a  soul  during  the  short  space  of  earth- 
life  will  turn  out  to  be  a  far  less  serious 
matter  to  the  soul  than  to  the  one  re- 
sponsible for  it. 


150  BEYOND. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

The  question  may  be  asked,  Wherein 
lies  the  difference  between  man  the 
unit,  and  the  race  which  is  an  aggre- 
gation of  these  units  ?  What  philoso- 
phical difference  is  possible  ?  In  an- 
swer, I  would  say  that  wliile  the  in- 
dividual and  the  race  alike  possess 
body  and  soul,  the  individual  at  times 
manifests  a  power  of  becoming  greater 
in  every  respect  than  the  influence  of 
heredity  or  surroundings  can  at  all 
account  for.  Such  individuals  tell  us 
of  some  powerful  influence  descending 
upon  them,  as  it  were,  from  a  higher 
sphere,  and  to  this  they  attribute  the 
changes  in  their  life  and  powers  which 
make  all  their  friends  to  marvel.  No 
such  stimulating  and    transforming  in- 


BEYOND.  151 

fluence  has  ever  manifested  itself  on  so 
broad  a  scale  as  to  affect  our  entire  race 
at  once,  and  we  must  conclude  that  the 
time  has  not  come  for  such  an  event. 
As  a  race,  our  eyes  are  not  lifted  above 
the  earth.  We  care  little  about  our 
origin,  and  still  less  about  our  destiny. 
The  love  of  war  and  bloodshed,  delight 
in  the  flowing  bowl  and  all  its  attend- 
ant revelry,  are  still  characteristic  of 
our  race,  and  the  heavy  clouds  that  are 
gathering  in  our  sky  are  not  yet  black 
enough  with  impending  evil  to  arrest 
us  in  our  downward    course. 

Ah  !  well  for  us  it  is  that  we  are  not 
to  be  left  alone  to  rush  headlong  to 
destruction  in  our  blind  folly.  Terrible 
as  are  the  forces  we  have  invoked 
against  ourselves,  those  which  shall 
save  us  from  death  by  all  manner  of 
intoxication  are  infinitely  greater. 

The  wasting  fever  of  war  undoubt- 
edly must  come,  such  war  as  the  world 


152  BEYOND, 

has  never  seen  before,  but  when  the 
coveted  excitement,  changed  to  agony- 
untold,  is  at  last  over,  when  our  phys- 
ical forces  are  entirely  exhausted,  the 
loving  Parent  whose  outstretched  hand 
we  have  always  refused,  will  show  a 
pitying  face.  A  draught  of  infinite 
peace  will  be  imparted  to  our  spirit,  and 
we  shall  rise  in  newness  of  life  to  enjoy 
the  forgotten  delights  of  obedient  child- 
hood, and  make  this  old  world  over  into 
one  entirely  new. 


BEYOND.  163 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

I  HAD  not  thought  to  touch  this 
strain  when  I  began  to  write  of  the 
Beyond,  but  some  things  almost  write 
themselves,  and  I  have  not  forgotten 
the  closing  words  of  the  appeal  with 
which  this  book  opens.  "  We  are 
trodden  down  by  our  brothers  among 
the  living.  Help  us,  our  fathers  from 
the  dead." 

Ah!  if  the  wire  which  carries  this 
petition  outward  can  bear  the  strength 
of  the  return  current,  it  may  possibly 
convey  such  tidings  as  words  are  not 
able  to  express,  for  is  it  not  true  that 
the  sweetest  strains  are  cradled  within 
a  silence  which  speaks  more  profoundly 
to  the  soul  than  does  the  music  to  the 
ear  ?     Let  us  hearken. 


154  BEYOND. 

"  Do  you  wish  to  know  what  stands 
in  the  way  of  our  coming  to  the 
rescue?  Nothing  but  your  unbelief 
in  the  possibility  of  our  coming. 
Thank  God  that  unbelief  is  grow- 
ing weak.  Could  you  know  what 
exhausting  labor  is  ours  in  our  efforts 
to  reach  you,  you  would  pray  rather 
for  light  to  enable  you  to  do  your  part. 
Believe,  oh,  believe  that  we  have  not 
forgotten.  In  agony  of  spirit  we  are 
striving  to  awaken  you  from  slumber, 
to  instil  into  your  minds  the  supreme 
truth,  that  no  good  thing  that  can  be 
named  is  impossible  of  occurrence. 
You  are  ready  to  believe  it  for  the 
material,  why  not  accept  it  in  the 
spiritual  ? 

"  Religious  liberty  is  your  priceless 
privilege.  Can  you  possibly  gain  it  by 
setting  foot  on  religion  itself?  Be 
sane.  Learn  to  discriminate.  Throw 
away   the  chaff,  but  keep   the   wheat. 


V 


BEYOND.  155 

Death  is  a  magician,  not  a  murderer. 
The  pain  all  comes  beforehand.  The 
passage  itself  is  not  painful.  Death 
merely  turns  the  key  in  a  door  you 
^never  saw  before,  and  you  step  out  into 
such  a  freedom  as  you  never  dreamed 
of.  '  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and 
I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life,' 
suggests  a  great  truth.  Try  to  get 
hold  of  it.  No  man,  and  no  body  of 
men,  no  spirit,  nor  any  combination  of 
them,  can  prevent  you  from  making 
your  life  a  success.  There  are  prizes 
to  be  won.     Why  not  try  for  them? 

"  But  you  say  you  are  trying.  Sword 
in  hand,  you  are  battling  for  the  right. 
Yes,  we  know,  and  sometimes  you  are 
wounded,  and  help  seems  never  to 
come.  Hold  fast.  We  are  building  a 
road. 

''It  is  already  finished,  and  the  cars 
are  on  the  track.  You  shall  not  die 
of  wounds  like  these.     Help    is    near. 


156  BEYOND. 

Your  prayer  is  heard.  We  knew  it 
would  be.  From  the  heights  beyond 
the  heights  has  come  the  order,  '  De- 
scend in  power.  Earth's  children  are 
ready  to  receive  you.'  And  we  are  not 
few  nor  weak.  Our  phalanx  moves  in 
a  light  which  nothing  can  withstand. 
Believe  it,  and  stand  upon  your  feet. 
We  are  already  here." 


BEYOND,  157 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Theee  is  another  grand  division  of 
my  subject,  but  the  difficulty  of  present- 
ing it  through  the  medium  of  written 
language  is  even  greater  than  that  al- 
ready dealt  with,  and  only  a  slight  at- 
tempt will  now  be  made.  Not  only  do 
thoughts  take  the  place  of  things  in  the 
Beyond,  but  emotiofis  take  the  place  of 
forces.  By  emotions  in  this  connection 
I  mean  those  currents  of  energy  which 
have  their  rise  in,  and  are  more  or  less 
under  the  control  of  individualized  in- 
telligence, as  love  and  hate,  joy  and 
sorrow,  hope  and  fear,  happiness  and 
distress;  and  by  forces  I  mean  those 
which  are  sometimes  called  blind  forces, 
such  as  attraction  in  its  various   forms, 


158  BEYOND. 

heat,  electric  yibratioii,  and  the  like. 
As  these  last  pertain  especially  to 
matter,  we  should  expect  them  to  retire 
into  the  background  in  a  world  where 
mind-realities,  or  facts  of  consciousness, 
absolutely  dominate.  And  so  they  do. 
And  here  may  be  a  good  place  to  in- 
dicate what  part  matter  really  plays 
in  this  immaterial  world.  Let  me  call 
attention  to  the  world  of  art.  Let  us 
recall  its  great  names,  and  the  master- 
pieces which  have  given  them  fame,  the 
wonderful  poems,  the  paintings,  the 
sculpture,  and  the  musical  creations 
that  will  never  die,  and  then  pause  and 
consider  how  slight  are  the  demands 
made  by  this  wonder-world  on  the  lower 
world  of  matter.  The  poet  and  the 
musician  call  for  writing  materials,  the 
sculptor  needs  some  clay  and  a  few 
modeling  tools,  the  painter  some  pig- 
ments and  brushes,  and  a  bit  of  canvas. 
With  these  slight   aids  the  noble  con- 


BEYOND,  159 

ceptions  of  genius  are  materialized  for 
the  delight  of  future  generations. 

Take  another  illustration.  When  a 
ship  goes  out  of  the  harbor,  it  is  to  be 
assumed  that  she  takes  her  anchor  with 
her,  and  carefully  guards  it  against 
possible  loss. 

It  is  likewise  true  that  within  the 
scope  of  the  great  and  splendid  activ- 
ities of  a  free  spirit,  a  material  anchor 
is  somewhere  safely  cared  for,  yet  such 
an  anchor  has  no  more  prominent  re- 
lation to  the  activities  of  the  spirit  than 
the  anchor  of  a  ship  has  to  the  ship's 
power  to  cross  the  sea.  If  we  could  think 
of  a  ship  with  nothing  else  to  do  but  to 
lie  around  the  harbor,  the  relative  im- 
portance of  the  anchor  would  increase 
very  much ;  and  if  it  had  no  anchor  of 
its  own,  it  might  attempt  to  tie  up  to 
some  other  vessel  that  had  one.  And 
so  with  earth-bound  spirits  whose  testi- 
mony is  sometimes  quoted  to  the  effect 


160  BEYOND, 

that  spirit-life  is  as  dependent  on  matter 
as  any  other.  Most  of  them  are  bliss- 
fully ignorant  of  their  own  poverty,  and 
move  about  the  earth,  that  is  to  say  in 
the  lower  or  earthly  strata  of  thoughts 
and  feelings,  because  they  have  no  de- 
sires above  them. 

They  remember  this  life  as  a  lost 
heaven,  and  are  continually  bemoaning 
that  loss  in  secret,  while  their  activities 
take  the  form  of  influencing  mortals  to 
tliis  or  that  kind  of  sensual  indulgence, 
which  they  wish  to  share  through  sym- 
pathy. Every  impulse  and  desire  is 
bent  upon  a  possible  recovery  of  the 
earth-life,  and  they  are  so  ignorant  of, 
and  indifferent  to,  any  higher  form  of 
life,  that  it  remains  without  existence  to 
them. 

I  would  not  say  they  are  insensible  to 
the  enlargement  of  their  powers  con- 
sequent upon  their  release  from  the  con,- 
finement   of   an    earthly   body.      They 


BEYOND.  161 

could  not  be.  Their  discovery  that 
death  does  not  destroy  the  inner  con- 
sciousness was  a  great  surprise  to  them, 
but  the  novelty  of  the  discovery  soon 
wore  away.  What  seemed  so  strange 
at  first,  became  a  truism,  a  simple 
scientific  fact,  previously  unknown,  and 
unable  in  itself  to  supply  any  stimulus 
to  their  higher  powers. 

It  is  evident  that  the  testimony  of 
these  upon  the  subject  is  worthless, 
while  those  who  have  battled  for  and 
won  the  prize  of  recognition  in  a  higher 
sphere  give  abundant  evidence  of  their 
freedom  from  the  bondage  of  matter, 
and  the  desires  that  have  material 
things  for  their  object. 

Resuming  my  subject,  not  only 
matter,  but  those  forces  which  are  in- 
separably associated  with  it,  retire  into 
the  background,  nay,  almost  disappear, 
in   the   Beyond.     Emotions  take   their 

place. 
II 


162  BEYOND. 

The  atmosphere,  or  that  which  cor- 
responds to  what  we  know  by  the  term, 
seems  charged  with  some  powerful  ele- 
ment, resembling  electricity  in  its 
effects,  but  differing  from  it  in  that  it 
seems  to  be  sensitive  to  thought,  and  to 
be  capable  of  responding  to  it  with  dy- 
namic force.  A  shock  from  this  ele- 
ment is  in  every  respect  as  real  to  the 
consciousness  as  an  electric  shock  is  to 
us.  It  comes  from  without  and  ex- 
pends its  force  upon  the  gaseous  body. 
Being  sensitive  to  thought,  it  does  not 
impress  one  as  being  capricious  in  its 
nature,  but  as  though  acting  according 
to  some  law  which  it  is  of  the  highest 
importance  to  discover,  if  possible. 

With  the  perceptive  and  intuitional 
faculties  wrought  up  to  the  highest  state 
of  activity,  it  is  presently  discovered 
that  it  is  not  thought  in  the  abstract, 
but  thought  surcharged  with  feeling  or 
with  devotion  to  a  principle,  some  cher- 


BEYOND,  163 

ished  sentiment  of  the  soul,  which  has 
the  power  to  excite  this  hitherto  un- 
known element ;  and  gradually  it  dawns 
on  the  mind  that  this  element  corre- 
sponds to  public  opinion  on  earth,  that  it 
emanates  from  the  inhabitants  of  that 
part  of  the  spirit-realm,  and  that  if  your 
mind  does  not  happen  to  be  in  accord 
with  theirs,  you  must  either  get  away 
or  do  battle  for  your  life.  By  life,  I 
mean  your  power  and  freedom  of  ex- 
pression, the  very  breath  of  the  spirit, 
what  a  printing-press  is  to  a  newspaper, 
cut  off  from  which,  the  paper  is  dead. 

Manifestations  of  emotion,  both  in 
kind  and  degree,  depend  upon  two 
things,  our  spiritual  state  or  condition, 
and  the  nature  of  our  surroundings. 
Passing  over  the  first  of  these,  it  is 
evident  that  earth-surroundings  greatly 
limit  the  expression  of  emotion;  and 
when  we  observe  the  effect  of  a  power- 
ful current  of  this  kind  upon  the  physical 


164  BEYOND. 

tissues  of  the  body,  weakening  and  con- 
suming them  as  by  a  flame,  we  see  that 
the  length  of  our  stay  here  is  involved 
in  our  ability  to  control  our  emotions. 

Not  so  in  the  Beyond,  where  our  stay 
is  without  assignable  limits,  and  where 
the  pent-up  emotions  of  a  lifetime  at 
last  find  vent,  and  pour  themselves  out 
as  by  flood-gates  to  the  sea. 

And  it  is  here  that  music  plays  its 
part  in  that  wonder-world.  For  as  ideas 
have  each  their  appropriate  form,  so  every 
emotion  has  a  musical  strain  peculiar 
to  it. 

And  who  can  describe  the  healing 
power  of  music  under  a  master's  hand  ? 
Reading  the  mind  and  soul  as  an  open 
book,  and  informing  every  tone  with  the 
vibrations  of  a  perfect  sympathy  born 
of  knowledge,  he  administers  to  the  soul 
whose  life  has  been  a  tragedy  long- 
drawn-out,  such  throbbing  waves  of 
strength   and   consolation,   himself  re- 


BEYOND.  165 

maining  hidden,  as  seem  to  issue  from 
the  very  stars,  and  drown  the  memory 
of  that  age-long  pain  in  an  ocean  of 
oblivion. 

Ah  !  believe  me,  it  is  another  world, 
where  the  powers  of  this  one  do  not 
rule. 


166  BEYOND, 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

And  yet,  as  I  have  indicated,  it  is 
possible  to  live  so  far  below  one's  moral 
and  spiritual  possibilities,  that  the  loss 
of  life  will  seem  the  loss  of  heaven,  and 
the  men  of  power  on  earth  whom  one 
has  envied  will  come  to  seem  very  gods, 
worthy  of  being  worshipped.  Such  a 
delusion  as  this  is  in  part  due  to  the 
absence  of  a  common  time-element. 

Duration  is  measured  only  by  the  suc- 
cession of  various  states  of  conscious- 
ness, and  these  change  so  rapidly  under 
the  influence  of  the  vibratory  intensity 
of  the  new  life,  that  the  events  of  a  day 
lengthen  it  out  until  it  seems  like  a  year 
upon  earth  ;  and  day  and  night  being 
one  in  the  Beyond,  so  far  as  activity  is 
concerned,  although   they  differ   some- 


BEYOND.  167 

what  in  magnetic  conditions,  when  one 
of  these  year-long  days  is  past,  the  spirit, 
glancing  across  into  earth-life,  at  some 
money  king,  with  thirty  years  of  active 
life  before  him,  can  scarcely  avoid  en- 
dowing him  with  a  kind  of  immortality, 
and  may  devote  the  fiery  energies  of  the 
soul  to  building  up  the  fortunes  of  such 
a  one,  with  no  higher  object  than  that 
of  keeping  the  mental  balance  and 
avoiding  reflection. 

This  necessity  for  keeping  the  balance 
supplies  motive  for  a  great  deal  that  is 
done  by  spirits  in  the  lower  strata  of 
life  in  the  Beyond.  It  is  not,  strictly 
speaking,  mental  balance,  but  organic, 
affecting  the  whole  being.  A  spirit  pos- 
sessed of  any  conscious  individuality 
whatever  must  generate  a  certain  inte- 
rior force  to  maintain  it.  This  keeps 
his  body  in  a  state  of  equilibrium  be- 
tween the  inner  and  outer  pressure,  and 
the    body    of  a  spirit    is   naturally  as 


168  BEYOND. 

valuable  to  him  as  ours  is  to  us.  It 
protects  him  against  currents  of  thought 
and  emotion  that  are  not  adapted  to  his 
needs,  and  when  evenly  balanced  he  is 
able  to  put  forth  effective  will-power 
along  the  plane  of  his  development  and 
below. 

Any  one  who  has  not  learned  what 
soul-action  is  will  have  it  to  learn  soon 
after  the  exchange  of  worlds.  No 
other  form  of  activity  is  possible  there. 
No  spirit  strikes  another  with  his  hand, 
nor  presents  him  with  a  visible  token  of 
wealth,  yet  battles  are  fought  and  pres- 
ents given.  As  a  suggestion:  when 
you  say  to  your  friend,  "  Good-bye  and 
good-luck  to  you,"  you  are  making  him 
a  spiritual  present,  although  you  may 
not  be  aware  of  it. 

Whenever  you  launch  a  curse,  if  only 
in  thought,  you  strike  a  blow,  against 
which  conscious  rectitude  is  an  actual 
armor,  and  the  only  one. 


BEYOND,  169 

The  very  slightest  impulse  of  ill-will 
directed  toward  any  one  is  an  action  of 
tlie  soul  that  may  do  real  harm,  and  cer- 
tainly makes  a  record. 

These  statements  will  commend  them- 
selves as  true  to  most  of  my  readers, 
many  of  whom,  however,  would  not  be 
able  to  explain  why  they  are  so  sure  of 
what  they  have  learned  from  no  teacher, 
and  cannot  recall  from  the  pages  of  ex- 
perience.    Let  me  suggest. 

From  six  to  nine  hours'  sleep  is  an 
essential  part  of  our  daily  lives.  We 
suppose  ourselves  to  actually  sleep,  not 
only  in  body  but  in  mind  and  soul  as 
well.  Perhaps  some  who  have  very 
little  mind  and  even  less  spirit,  do  sleep 
when  their  body  sleeps,  but  there  are 
very  large  numbers  of  people  who,  the 
moment  the  brain  becomes  quiescent, 
enter  at  once  on  the  most  active  part  of 
their  daily  existence. 

This  is  especially  true  of  such  as  dur- 


170  BEYOND. 

ing  their  waking  hours  have  attained 
some  knowledge  of  spiritual  values,  and 
have  taken  their  stand  on  this  or  that 
platform  of  principles,  religious,  moral,  or 
even  political,  and  who  would  be  ready 
to  contend  in  argument,  or  even,  if  nec- 
essary, take  up  arms,  in  defense  of  their 
positions ;  in  other  words,  who  have 
a  conscious  location  in  some  field  of 
thought  or  fortress  of  belief. 

The  extent  to  which  we  influence 
others,  or  are  influenced  by  them,  dur- 
ing our  sleeping  hours,  very  few  realize, 
because  unable  to  recall,  when  waking, 
the  experiences  of  the  night  just  passed ; 
but  be  sure  that  no  reform  can  ever  make 
much  progress  until  the  agitation  for  it 
becomes  sufficiently  powerful  to  link  the 
day  to  the  night,  and  engage  the  activi- 
ties of  partially  freed  spirits  while  their 
bodily  consciousness  is  lost  in  slumber. 

It  is  here  that  lessons  are  learned  and 
impressions  made,  the  recalling  of  the 


BEYOND.  171 

results  of  which  may  surprise  us  as  to 
the  extent,  and  puzzle  us  as  to  the  origin, 
of  our  knowledge. 

Readers  of  Emerson  will  find  this  a 
key  to  some  of  his  mysterious  yet  de- 
lightful sayings. 


172  BEYOND. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Those  who  have  never  entered  into 
any  kind  of  associate  life  where  they 
might  learn  to  think  and  act  for  others 
as  well  as  for  themselves,  will  have  a 
particularly  hard  time  on  the  other  side. 

For  no  one  can  go  through  life  with- 
out becoming  responsible  for  innumer- 
able acts,  even  if  he  does  nothing  more 
than  make  room  for  himself,  and  defend 
his  own  footing ;  and  if  he  persists  in 
living  for  himself,  it  follows  that  his 
motives  will  never  rise  above  the  care 
of  himself,  and,  possibly,  of  those  who 
contribute  to  his  comfort. 

If  such  a  man,  by  speculation  or  other- 
wise, becomes  able  to  surround  himself 
with  the  tokens  of  wealth,  there  will  not 
be  wanting  those  who  will  bow  low  to 


BEYOND,  173 

him  ;  and  when  he  is  called  out  of  life, 
with  perhaps  no  particularly  heavy 
weight  on  his  conscience,  he  will  strut 
into  another  world  carrying  with  him  a 
very  large  sense  of  his  own  importance. 

Now,  there  is  no  need  to  enlarge  upon 
the  emotions  he  will  arouse,  the  intense 
though  secret  hilarity  with  which  he 
will  be  taken  in  hand,  and  the  endless 
variety  of  hazing  operations  to  which 
he  will  be  subjected  ;  but  he  will  be  sure 
to  make  the  unexpected  discovery  that 
death  is  a  lost  friend,  long  before  the 
last  spark  of  self-conceit  is  extinguished 
within  him. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  convey  an 
idea  of  how  small  a  part  individual 
egotism  is  allowed  to  play  in  the  world 
beyond. 

In  this  world  our  race,  as  a  race,  is 
under  protection.  We  are  all  more  or 
less  conscious  of  this  in  our  own  person. 

Even  the  most  stolid,  when  suddenly 


174  BEYOND. 

reduced  to  the  extremity  of  distress, 
find  themselves  calling  upon  God,  al- 
most without  conscious  volition. 

If  it  were  not  so,  if  this  protection 
were  withdrawn,  our  race  would  shortly 
cease  to  be. 

In  the  spirit-world,  or  in  that  part  of 
it  which  adjoins  this,  figuratively  speak- 
ing, which  we  enter  as  individuals,  this 
sense  of  a  general  protection  disappears. 
We  find  we  are  to  stand  or  fall  on  our 
own  individual  record.  We  cannot  lose 
ourselves  in  the  mass.  There  is  no 
mass.  Time  and  space  no  longer  exist 
for  us.  They  are  gone  with  the  bodily 
senses  and  mathematical  reasoning  to 
which  they  were  a  prime  necessity. 

Sight,  hearing,  and  touch  of  the  soul 
have  awakened,  however,  and  how  to 
use  these  new  senses  whose  field  of 
action  is  so  immensely  greater  than  the 
senses  we  have  parted  with,  engages  our 
attention. 


BEYOND.  175 

Their  first  reports  are  so  different 
from  anything  we  have  known  that  we 
discredit  them  entirely,  are  sure  we 
must  be  dreaming,  and  put  forth  strong 
efforts  to  wake  up.  Failing  in  this,  we 
look  about  us  and  endeavor  to  get  our 
bearings. 

Although  time  and  space  have  left 
us,  eternity  and  infinity  have  taken  their 
place,  and  a  feeling  of  awe  steals  over 
us  at  the  realization,  a  feeling  that  ex- 
tends in  part  to  ourselves  as  we  discover 
a  certain  element  within  us  which  now 
for  the  first  time  recognizes  its  home. 

Then,  in  a  flash,  we  perceive  as  never 
before,  the  essential  narrowness  of  the 
limits  of  earth-life,  and  our  mental 
vision  shows  us  that  whatever  may  have 
raised  that  phase  of  existence  above  the 
merely  sensual  or  animal,  had  its  home 
in  the  Beyond,  and  was  only  a  visitor 
on  earth. 

We  find  ourselves  ushered  into  the 


176  BEYOND. 

domain  of  causes,  and  a  thousand  per- 
plexities of  memory  disappear  in  a  mag- 
ical way,  as  we  become  sensible  of  the 
tremendous  force  of  the  activities  at 
work  in  this  heretofore  hidden  realm. 

A  spirit  sometimes  finds  himself  as  if 
on  a  stage,  and  the  pressure  of  a  power- 
ful will  bids  him  to  act  out  his  own 
character.  He  consents,  for  why  should 
he  not?  Scene  follows  scene;  men 
and  women  from  every  walk  of  life, 
those  whom  he  has  known,  and  those  of 
whom  he  has  read,  appear  and  act  their 
part ;  kings  and  courtiers  come  and  go, 
prophets  and  peasants,  soldiers  and 
merchants  ;  and  he  finds  some  link  con- 
necting him  with  them  all.  Perhaps  a 
plot  is  formed  to  destroy  his  reputa- 
tation;  thread  by  thread  the  web  is 
wound  about  him.  How  shall  he  get 
free  ?  Is  it  not  all  a  dream  ?  But  he  is 
made  to  feel  that  he  must  not  insist  upon 
knowing.     Something  like   an  electric 


BEYOND.  177 

shock  answers  his  thought,  and  bids 
him  to  consider  his  surroundings  real, 
whether  they  are  or  not,  and  forbids 
him  to  think  of  such  a  thing  as  apply- 
ing a  test.  And,  indeed,  there  is  small 
leisure  for  anything  of  that  kind.  He 
finds  himself  obliged  to  put  forth  ener- 
gies he  never  dreamed  of  possessing,  to 
keep  from  going  distracted.  The  stage 
widens  until  it  becomes  the  floor  of  a 
world.  The  audience  swells  to  millions. 
He  reaches,  out  for  their  sympathy,  but 
they  do  not  respond.  They  do  not  pre- 
tend to  know  whether  he  is  a  true  man 
or  a  scoundrel.  If  he  cries,  "  I  am 
true,"  they  answer,  "  Prove  it."  What 
can  I  do  to  prove  it  ?  But  they  turn 
away  unconcerned,  while  another  strand 
of  falsehood  is  thrown  around  him  and 
he  is  brought  to  his  knees,  where  he  is 
made  the  target  for  scorn  and  contempt, 
which  come  like  arrows  to  pierce  his 
form.     In  the  depth  of  his  despair,  he 


178  BEYOND. 

sends  out  a  piercing  cry  to  the  spheres 
above  him  for  help. 

Just  then  he  discovers  that  he  is 
clothed  in  armor,  with  a  good  sword 
at  his  side.  He  did  not  know  it  before, 
he  could  not  possibly  say  how  or 
whence  it  came,  but  it  is  not  a  time 
for  curious  questions.  He  seizes  the 
blade  and  with  one  sweep  severs  the 
cords  that  bound  him,  stands  upon  his 
feet,  and  then,  in  a  voice  that  startles 
himself,  he  calls  upon  his  enemies  to 
show  themselves.  Instead  of  that  he 
hears  their  retreating  feet,  the  clouds 
lift,  the  applause  of  the  audience  gives 
him  back  his  lost  strength,  and  he  is 
ready  for  the  next  ordeal. 

Now  it  may  not  be  supposed  that 
during  such  a  scene  as  this,  it  would  be 
possible  for  the  spirit  to  receive  and  an- 
swer thought-messages  from  his  friends 
on  earth,  but  it  is  even  so.  A  spirit 
with  a  heart  will  at  least  make  the  effort 


BEYOND.  179 

to  respond  to  every  demand  made  upon 
it,  but  if  among  the  circle  of  his  friends 
one  sends  out  the  message,  "  Come  now, 
if  you  care  anything  about  me,  I  wish 
you  would  help  me  find  this  gold-mine. 
What  do  you  have  to  do  anyhow?" 
the  spirit  may  be  excused  if  he  fails  to 
respond,  and  does  not  immediately  pro- 
ceed to  explain  just  what  he  has  to  do. 


Vi^iOT)  of  Tbyrzzt: 

THE  GIFT  OF  THE  HILLS. 


DB3r    ZISIS- 


The  author  is  convinced  that  war,  strife,  poverty, 
misery,  disease,  and  death  are  the  result  of  man's  reck- 
less self-indulgence ;  and  that  so  long  as  he  shall  be 
actuated  by  greed  and  selfishness  in  his  tillage  of  the 
soil,  in  the  various  industrial  pursuits,  and  in  the  marts 
of  trade,  he  will  "  sow  the  wind  and  reap  the  whirl- 
wind." 

But  the  lamentable  state  of  things  will  not  continue 
forever.  The  author,  with  "prophetic  mind,"  per- 
ceives that  the  time  will  come  when  man  will  live  in 
harmony  with  Nature,  and  yield  himself  to  the  guid- 
ance of  "  Divine  Love."  So  guided  and  inspired,  he 
will  refine,  purify,  and  ennoble  the  life  of  his  fellow- 
men.  Then  agriculture  will  be  "restored  to  right 
uses  "  and  held  in  its  pristine  honor ;  and  the  earth 
will  yield  its  fruits  abundantly.  A  noble  simplicity 
and  wholesomeness  will  characterize  the  life  of  man, 
and  universal  peace  will  gladden  his  heart.  The  whole 
world  will  rejoice  in  the  return  of  the  Golden  Age. 

Cloth,  75   Cents. 

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His  Perpetual  Adoration; 

—  OR,— 

THE  CHAPLAIN'S  OLD  DIARY. 


BY  EEV.  JOSEPH  P.  PLINT. 


This  is  an  extremely  interesting  and  realistic  war 
story,  told  in  the  form  of  a  diary  left  at  his  death  by  a 
veteran  who  had  been  a  captain  in  the  Northern  army, 
and  with  Grant  at  Vicksburg  and  Sherman  on  his 
march  to  the  sea.  Two  or  three  of  the  great  events 
of  the  war  are  told  in  stirring  fashion,  but  the  narra- 
tive deals  mainly  with  the  inside  life  of  the  soldier  in 
war  time,  and  its  physical  and  moral  difficulties.  A 
fine  love  story  runs  throughout,  the  hero  having 
plighted  his  troth  before  setting  out  for  the  front. 
Being  wounded  in  Georgia,  he  is  cared  for  in  the  home 
of  a  Southerner,  who  is  at  the  front  with  Lee's  army, 
but  who  has  in  some  way  earned  the  bitter  hatred  of 
the  wife  whom  he  has  left  at  home.  She  falls  des- 
perately in  love  with  her  wounded  guest,  and  to  him 
there  comes  the  sorest  temptation  of  his  life.  How 
he  comes  out  of  the  ordeal  must  be  left  to  the  reader 
of  the  story  to  discover. 

Cloth,  $1.25;  Paper,  50  Cents. 

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THE  LAND  OF  NADA. 


BY  BONNIE  SCOTLAND. 


The  Land  of  Nada,  the  scene  of  this  charming  fairy 
story,  is  an  enchanted  country,  ruled  over  by  King 
Whitcombo  and  the  beautiful  Queen  Haywarda. 
Prince  Trueheart  and  his  blue-eyed  baby  sister.  Prin- 
cess Dorothy,  and  their  wonderful  adventures ;  the 
enchanted  cows  and  chickens,  the  wonderful  lemon 
tree  whose  trunk  yields  three  different  kinds  of 
beverages,  are  some  of  the  wonders  of  this  delightful 
land;  as  are,  also,  the  doings  of  fairies,  genii,  goblins, 
and  enchanted  hawks.  How  the  blind  prince  recovers 
his  sight,  how  the  baby  princess  is  spirited  away,  cared 
for,  and  finally  restored  to  her  home,  and  how  the 
wicked  goblin  and  the  two  hawks  that  spirited  her 
away  are  punished,  may  be  read  in  this  delightful 
fairy  story,  which  teems  with  graceful  conceits  and 
charming  fancies,  and  which  can  be  read,  not  only  by 
children  of  tender  years,  but  by  those  of  larger  growth. 

The  style  in  which  the  book  is  gotten  up  makes  it 
very  suitable  for  a  Christmas  present. 

Cloth,  rs  Cents;  Paper,  25  Cents. 

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NICODEHUS:  A  POEM. 

^Bjr  <3-ra,ce  Sla.su-T77-  X)-u.ff_ 

In  this  fine  blank-verse  poem,  written  by  the  well-known  New 
York  authoress,  Mrs.  Grace  Shaw  Duff,  is  given,  in  autobiographic 
forra  as  from  the  lips  of  Nicodemus  himself,  a  poetic  account  of 
the  two  episodes  between  that  ruler  of  the  Jews  and  Jesus,  as  re- 
lated in  the  third  and  seventh  chapters  of  John's  gospel.  The 
poem  is  full  of  local  color,  and  opens  with  a  striking  description 
of  sunrise  on  the  morning  of  the  last  day  of  the  feast  of  the  Pass- 
over in  Jerusalem.  Then  follows  a  picture  of  the  unusual  stir  in 
the  city  due  to  the  crowds  attending  the  feast,  after  which  there  is 
a  fine  word  painting  of  the  scene  in  the  temple,  with  its  motley 
throngs  of  maimed  and  halt,  of  venders  of  unsavory  wares,  of 
idlers,  and  of  graver  men. 

The  description  of  the  midnight  visit  of  Nicodemus  to  Jesus  may 
be  quoted  in  full  as  a  typical  specimen  of  the  tone,  manner,  and 
fine  musical  versification  of  the  whole  poem :  — 

'*  On«  night  from  sleepless  bed  I  rose,  and  went 
To  where  He  lodged,  and  bade  the  porter  say 
One  Nicodemus  —  ruler  —  came,  and  speech 
Would  have  with  Him.    There  was  no  moon,  but  hosts 
Of  stars,  and  soft,  pale  glow  from  shaded  lamps 
Made  silver  light.     The  air  was  still,  with  just 
Enough  of  light  to  waft  at  times  a  faint 
Sweet  oleander  scent,  and  gently  float 
Some  loosened  petals  down.     I  heard  no  sound 
But  sudden  knew  another  presence  near, 
And  turned  to  where  He  stood  ;  one  hand  held  back 
The  curtain's  fold;  the  other  clasped  a  roll. 
No  King  could  gently  bear  a  prouder  mien  ; 
And  when  I  gracious  rose  to  offer  meet 
Respect  to  one  whose  words  had  won  for  Him 
Regard,  I  strangely  felt  like  loyal  slave, 
And  almost  *  Master  !'  trembled  on  my  lips. 
A  deep,  brave  look  shone  in  his  eyes,  as  if 
He  saw  the  whole  of  mankind's  needs,  yet  dared 
To  bid  him  hope  ;  and  when  he  spoke,  his  words 
And  voice  seemed  fitted  parts  of  some  great  psalm." 
The  book  is  beautifully  printed  on  first-class  paper,  and  is  finely 
illustrated  with  numerous  half-tones,  after  sepia-wash  drawings  by 
that  excellent  artist  Fredrick  C.   Gordon ;  and  each  section  of  the 
poem  has  a  charmingly  artistic  vignette  for  the  initial  capital 
letter.    The  binding  is  in  keeping  with  the  general  get-up,  and  the 
book  would  make  an  admirable  Christmas  present. 
CLOTH,  75  CENTS. 

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The  Woman-Suffrage  Movement 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


B3r   J^   XJ-^-^77■■2•E^^. 

The  author  of  this  book  believes  that  the  Bible  is  the  inspired 
word  of  God,  and  that  those  who  accept  its  teachings  as  authorita- 
tive must  be  opposed  to  the  woman-suffrage  movement.  Though 
he  bases  his  arguments  mainly  on  the  teachings  of  Holy  Scripture, 
he  does  not  overlook  the  lessons  of  history.  But  history  only 
confirms  him  in  his  contention  that  marriage  is  something  more 
than  a  civil  contract  terminable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  partners. 
From  the  true  point  of  view  marriage  is  an  ordinance  of  God. 
Should  it  ever  become  the  general  belief  that  it  is  other  than  a 
sacrament,  there  would  be  "  no  protection,  no  honorable  or  ele- 
vated position,  no  high  social  plane  or  place  for  woman."  And 
if  marriage  is  a  sacrament,  there  is  but  one  valid  caus«  for 
divorce  —  the  one  laid  down  in  the  Word  of  God.  The  husband  is 
the  head  of  the  household,  and  his  commands  should  be  respected 
and  obeyed,  for  obedience  and  protection  are  correlative  terms; 
the  interests  of  husband  and  wife  should  be  identical. 

The  various  "cries"  of  the  advocates  of  woman  suffrage,  as 
"taxation  without  representation,"  "liberty,  fraternity,  and 
equality,"  are  considered  and  declared  to  be  without  force,  and 
this  declaration  is  supported  by  cogent  reasons.  The  author  is 
confident  that  if  woman  suffrage  were  enacted  into  law  it  would 
not  only  harden  women  but  work  irreparable  injury  to  man,  for 
those  now  opposed  to  the  movement  would  then  "reconcile  the 
principle  and  its  effects  upon  their  environment  with  the  Bible  by 
throwing  the  Bible  away."  Thus,  the  "  attack  strikes  at  the  root 
of  all  moral  and  religious  training." 

The  book  merits  a  wide  circulation.  Candid  advocates  of  the 
movement  will  desire  to  know  what  can  be  sa'd  against  it ;  and 
its  opponents  will  be  glad  to  have  at  hand  reasons  so  forcible  and 
illustrations  so  apt  in  condemnation  of  woman  suffrage. 

We  cheerfully  say  so  much  for  the  book,  though,  as  is  well 
known,  we  are  strongly  in  favor  of  the  movement  towards  a  larger 
liberty  of  action  for  woman;  and  we  are  looking  earnestly  and  ex- 
pectantly for  the  coming  of  the  day  when  woman  emancipated  and 
enfranchised  shall  work  out  her  destiny  in  perfect  freedom. 

154  pp.    Cloth,  75  cents;  Paper,  25  cents. 

The  Arena  Publishing  Company, 

Oopley  Square,  Boston,  Mass. 


The  Heart  of  Old  Hickory. 


By  WILL  ALLEN  DROMQOOLE. 


Eight  charming  and  popular  stories  by  this  gifted 
young  Tennessee  writer  are  collected  in  this  beautiful 
volume.  Each  of  these  stories  is  a  study  that  reveals 
a  different  phase  of  human  character,  and  each  study 
is  a  work  of  art.  Several  show  the  author's  subtle 
skill  in  dialect-writing,  and  all  reveal  the  hand  of  a 
master  in  delineating  character.  Here  we  have  inim- 
itable humor,  gleeful  fun,  delightful  sallies  of  wit,  and 
genuine  pathos,  all  combined  with  extraordinary 
descriptive  powers.  Raciness,  strength,  vividness,  and 
felicity  of  expression  characterize  the  author's  style. 
He  is  to  be  pitied  who  can  read  these  stories  without 
being  widened  in  his  sympathies,  elevated  in  thought, 
quickened  in  conscience,  and  ennobled  in  soul.  The 
stories  are  the  work  of  a  literary  genius,  and  go  far  to 
justify  an  admirer  of  her  writings,  who  has  himself  no 
mean  fame  as  editor,  author,  and  critic,  in  calling  Will 
Allen  Dromgoole  the  *'  Charles  Dickens  of  the  New 
South." 

Cloth,  $1.25  I  Paper,  50  Cents. 

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WHICH  WAY,  SIRS,  THE  BETTER? 

A  Story  of  Our  Toilers. 


This  is  the  story  of  a  labor  strike,  its  causes  and  consequences. 
The  chief  character,  Robert  Belden,  is  a  self-made  man,  who, 
from  being  office-boy  in  the  Duncan  Iron  Works  at  Beldendalei 
Pa.,  had  risen,  by  dint  of  intelligence,  hard  work,  and  attention  to 
business,  to  be  partner  and  business  manager  of  the  concern. 

A  temporary  depression  in  the  iron  trade  makes  it  necessary  for 
him  to  give  notice  of  a  reduction  of  ten  per  cent  in  the  wages  of 
his  employees.  The  latter  are  dissatisfied,  and,  after  calling  a  meet- 
ing of  their  union,  demand  from  him  an  inspection  of  the  books  of 
concern  by  a  committee  on  their  behalf,  so  that  they  may  have  the 
assurance  that  the  reduction  is  necessary.  As  the  disclosure 
would  injure  the  business,  the  manager  refuses  to  comply  \vith 
this  demand,  and  the  workmen  go  out  on  strike.  Thereupon  the 
manager,  in  order  to  fill  his  contracts,  employs  laborers  from  a  dis- 
tance, and  hires  a  band  of  fifty  guards  from  a  detective  agency  to 
protect  them  and  his  works.  A  dreadful  riot  ensues,  with  blood- 
shed and  loss  of  life,  and  the  works  are  closed. 

After  a  time  the  manager  proposes  a  new  arrangement  with  his 
former  workmen,  whereby,  under  the  system  of  profit-sharing, 
they  shall  receive  a  share  of  the  profits  in  addition  to  their  wages. 
The  plan  works  admirably.  In  a  comparatively  brief  period  the 
workmen  become  well-to-do  and  contented,  many  owning  their  own 
homes,  and  Beldendale  becomes  the  model  of  a  prosperous  and 
happy  manufacturing  town. 

The  story  has  evidently  been  suggested  by  the  terrible  strikes 
and  riots  in  the  coke  fields  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  later  ones  at 
Homestead  and  Buffalo,  and  the  author's  object  is  to  show  the 
uselessness  and  the  evil  results  of  strikes,  and  to  propose  *'a 
better  way"  for  the  solution  of  the  perennial  conflict  between 
capital  and  labor.  His  admirable  story  does  this  most  effectivelv. 
It  is  written  in  that  unassuming,  straightforward  style  which  is  so 
impressive  when  dealing  with  "the  short  and  simple  annals  of  the 
poor,"  and  it  should  be  read  and  pondered  over  and  taken  to 
hsJtrt  by  every  capitalist  and  employer  of  labor  in  the  country,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  by  every  workingman,  on  the  other. 

Cloth,  75  Cents;  Paper,  25  Cents. 

The  Arena  Publishing:  Company, 

COPLEY  SQUARE,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


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Y A  01844 

U.  C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


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